Abertillery and District Hospital (original ranges only)

Abertillery and District Hospital (original ranges only)

The hospital comprises two parallel ranges connected by a short corridor: an administration, treatment and accommodation block forming the main range, with a ward block positioned to its rear. This separation of functional elements represents a scaled-down version of the pavilion plan that became standard for hospital design from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. Both ranges share a common architectural language in the arts-and-crafts or domestic revival style, though the main block features more elaborate architectural detailing and greater enrichment. The construction throughout uses Flemish bond brickwork with some tile-hanging to the main elevation of the main range, render to its sides and rear, and render to the ward block. Bold clay tiled roofs with strongly projecting eaves and wrought-iron brackets to gutters are used throughout.

The main range is designed to resemble a house in an expressive arts-and-crafts idiom, displaying the influences of Voysey and Lutyens. It is a long two-storeyed range with axial stacks in steeply pitched hipped roof, swept down over the ground floor at each end. The range is symmetrically arranged with advanced hipped gables at either end and three linking bays to either side of the slightly advanced entrance block. The façade is articulated by plain brick pilasters between the bays, with windows clasped between the pilasters to form rhythmic bands of fenestration.

The entrance block comprises three bays and breaks the eaves line to form a parapet, with a gable over the central bay enriched with raised brick diaper work. A wide central entrance is clasped by pilasters and has a very shallow arched head with brick-work imposts stepped back to paired inner doors, panelled with leaded glazed upper lights and overlight. Above the entrance is a long five-light wood mullioned window with leaded lights, aligned with all other first-floor windows to form a strong band of fenestration. Tile-hanging is used between the doorway and this window. The flanking bays of the entrance block have wood mullioned and transomed windows with leaded lights to the ground floor (with foundation stones as aprons) and small two-light mullioned windows above; herringbone tile-work appears between the ground and first-floor windows. To either side of the entrance block, three bays contain windows of four, two and four lights respectively, mullioned and transomed to the ground floor, mullioned to the first floor and positioned immediately below the eaves.

Advanced gables at either end each have a steep hipped roof with a distinctive pitch change at the apex and pilasters clasping a four-light mullioned window beneath the eaves. The ground-floor detail varies: the left-hand gable was an original entrance to the casualty department and has a round-arched doorway with stepped-back brickwork detail in the arch and paired doors with glazed upper panels. The main roof sweeps down over the ground floor to its left, where a narrow rendered bay forms the return of the side elevation; an asymmetrical roof with two hipped dormers covers a series of ground-floor windows with transoms, variously of three, two and one light. The right-hand gable has a mullioned and transomed window to the ground floor; beyond it the roof again sweeps down over the ground floor with a narrow recessed rendered bay forming the return of the side elevation. This contains a narrow round-arched service entrance and single-light transomed windows.

A detached ward block to the rear is connected by a linking corridor. It contains two wards in a long range, symmetrical to either side of the corridor. The block is single-storeyed with a steep hipped roof and regular fenestration comprising two-pane sash windows with top-lights positioned immediately below the eaves. Buttresses define day rooms at each end; these have hipped roofs carried on brackets over canted bay windows (in the left-hand ward this is advanced from the gable end, and in the right-hand ward from the end of the east elevation). Three original service blocks are positioned to the rear.

The original layout survives with only minor alteration. A mosaic-tiled entrance lobby gives access to a long corridor forming the link to the ward block at the rear. This corridor is lined with turquoise-tiled dado, and similar tile-work appears in the ward corridors. Each ward has small rooms opening off a central corridor, then the main ward is subdivided by a cross wall with a well-lit day room at the far end. The main block housed the kitchen and staff rooms to the right, with treatment rooms to the left; offices and staff quarters occupy the first floor, where the doctors' sitting room is distinguished by a timber-framed ingle-nook fireplace, built-in cupboards and window seats.