Lodge, Mearns Hospital

Lodge, Mearns Hospital

This lodge is a remnant of a large hospital complex built on a site acquired in 1913. The complex was designed by J A T Houston in a style based on revived English late 17th and early 18th century fashion, known as 'Wrenaissance', featuring characteristic Classical detailing throughout. All buildings were constructed of red brick with contrasting light-coloured detailing intended to represent Portland stone. Construction was delayed by the Great War and began in 1921, probably following the original designs, with the hospital opening in May 1930.

The hospital layout comprises a series of free-standing blocks, mostly one or two storeys in height, with slate roofs that are either hipped with bell-cast profiles or feature open-based pedimented gables. The original small-paned glazing has been retained. Brickwork is raised at angles across facades and channelled to form pilasters, with flat arches employed over square-headed openings. Moulded eaves feature throughout the complex, topped with deep moulded cornices of white-painted timber. The buildings are set within parkland containing mature trees, arranged in a layout that combines the axes and vistas of formal gardens with curves associated with informal landscaping.

The lodge itself stands on Mearns Road at the entrance to the complex. It is a two-storey structure with a piend roof, presenting a two-bay flat front with tripartite windows. A tall entrance bay is positioned alongside at the driveway.

The complex contains seven listed buildings in total. The Nurses' Home is probably the largest block, distinguished by particularly bold detailing including deep channelling of brickwork and a massive eaves cornice. It is three storeys and symmetrical, with a main south-west front arranged in a wide U-plan set behind a timber-railed full-width Doric colonnade. Three giant windows in a shallow advanced centre light a spacious common room, with squat square water towers positioned in the angles. Arched recessed panels containing windows, mostly at first-floor level, are painted, while tall shallow-arched panels in the front gables of the wings cut into the gable heads. Recessed wings extend on either side, with stair windows at the ends. Shallow-pitch bell-cast roofs cover this block.

The Administration Block comprises a two-storey front section with a piend roof and a five-bay front, featuring an art-deco entrance and five round-arched windows at first-floor level. The rear wing steps down in height, descending from two storeys to a single storey, and is T-shaped on plan with pedimented gables. The north elevation displays ten regular bays with a door squeezed into the centre.

The Former Domestic Residence is symmetrical and large, arranged in a long U-plan. Lower south-facing ranges link three taller parapetted blocks with five bays each, featuring clasping pilaster strips. The inner block is two storeys with deep south-facing first-floor windows, whilst the outer blocks are each three storeys tall with tall segmental-arched outer panels linking the upper floors.

The General Store is rectangular in plan with symmetrical long elevations and comprises two storeys. The west front presents eleven bays with a large art-deco entrance and doorways either side, with all entrances raised at level, presumably built this way from the outset for truck deliveries. To the rear, a centre section is advanced with paired stair windows.

The two-storey house is piend-roofed and north-facing, with an elevation spaced at five bays and a centre entrance with three windows above. Paired stacks cut through the roof on the flanks.

Southfield House, the former Medical Superintendent's house, stands apart from the main hospital complex, opposite the gate lodge on the east side of the main road. It features a symmetrical tripartite facade of two storeys with a shallow advanced centre, a steep-gabled porch with bipartite window above, and close-spaced three-light windows in the outer bays. The property includes garden walls, gatepiers with wrought-iron gates, and curved quadrant walls.