Wells Infirmary Main Block (Also Known As Priory Hospital)

WELLS

ST5445 GLASTONBURY ROAD 662-1/5/76 (North side) 13/09/72 Wells Infirmary, main block (also known as Priory Hospital)

GV II

Former workhouse, now hospital. 1845, by ST Welch, extended 1871. Local stone squared and coursed, with Bath stone dressings, Welsh slate roofs between coped gables, brick chimney stacks. EXTERIOR: mostly 2 storeys, but with 3-storey centre crossing south elevation of 15 bays, of which bays 1 and 15, and the central bays 6 to 10, project slightly. In a Tudor style. Bays 1 and 15 have angled corner buttresses with single offsets and pinnacles, the gables also having central pinnacles, with band course to first floor sills, single-light 4-centre arched windows to both floors with arched labels, steel casements inserted, trefoil panels in gables. Bays 2 to 5 and bays 11 to 14 have rectangular windows with square labels. Of the central projecting bays, bay 6 and 10 have corner buttresses and pinnacles, and bays 7 and 9 are canted so that bay 8 has a greater projection, these bays three storey, forming south end of the central crosswing. Plain doorways to bays 6 and 10 and plain rectangular windows to ground floor bays 7 and 9, the first floor bays have 2-light 'Y'-traceried windows with transoms and arched labels to all but bay 8, which in a matching 4-light window. The second-floor windows to this section have square windows on the splays and another 4-light window to bay 8, over which is a statue recess in the pinnacled gable. The main entrance in bay 8 has a pair of panelled doors in a 4-centre arch flanked by two lancet windows, over which is a pediment hood on brackets and a wrought-iron bracket for a light, the door approached by 5 steps with simple wrought-iron handrail. The side crosswings have some 12-pane sash windows in segmental arched openings, these are echoed in the Red Cross medical loan store attached at the north end of the west wing by a short link wing. The taller centre crosswing has 5 bays, then canted ends leading to an octagonal tower in the centre, with a matching 5-bay unit northwards, again mostly with sash windows in segmental arched-openings. INTERIOR: not inspected. (Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 326).

Listing NGR: ST5435545131