Parc Pen-y-fal (former main hospital building)

Parc Pen-y-fal (former main hospital building)

This building is constructed of coursed squared rock-faced local red sandstone rubble masonry, snecked to later work, with plinth, stringcourse and Bath freestone dressings. It has natural slate roofs and stone chimney stacks.

The earlier ranges were designed by Thomas Fulljames in the Gothic style of William Butterfield. Later alterations introduced elements of various styles, both classical and Jacobethan. The building is mainly three storeys, with the main front almost virtually symmetrical and punctuated by projecting gabled bays—three on either side of the main entrance. The entrance elevation is five windows wide, featuring 2 and 3-light stone mullioned windows in flat heads. A central classical porch with paired Doric columns and parapet extends across the flanking bays. Above this rises a full-height Jacobethan-derived frontispiece with octagonal tourelles and a square clock turret with swept roof and stacks at either gable.

This detailing, by Giles and Gough, dates from around 1883, when the Chapel was removed from the upper floors and replaced by Board and Committee Rooms. Gabled bays project to left and right with large octagonal stacks set in the angles. These gabled bays contain 4-light windows: acutely pointed on the second floor and grouped under a single arch bearing the Beaufort coat of arms on the south-east gable, with cusped arches below and Caernarvon arches to the ground floor. Between the next projecting gables run outwards 5-bay sections set back, featuring gables broader to the middle, lateral chimney breasts with paired diagonally set stacks, and cusped 2-light windows to the first floor.

The next projecting bay to the south-east is dated 1910 over the second floor windows and has a similar window arrangement to the previous gabled bay. The equivalent bay to the north-west is four storeys and dated 1851; the building steps down beyond. Both gables feature 2-light windows to the lower floors and above are large octagonal freestone ventilation towers rising from square bases, decorated with animal-carved gargoyles and other figures. Three further bays lead to the corners, the central ones of which are gabled and advanced to a shallower depth, with splayed bays to the ground and first floors and parapets. The Beaufort arms appear again on the south-east gable. Advanced corner towers display French Renaissance-style roofs and ironwork cresting, with shouldered doorways. All roofs are high and steeply pitched to match the gables.

The greater part of the cross wing to the south-east was the 1859–61 Infirmary, but only the rear wing now survives, giving an additional gable to the main elevation which is mirrored at the north-west end. Five-bay returns feature three gabled dormers. The rear elevation of the main range has two projecting wings of Victorian date, with two rows of newly completed houses on the site of the former Central Administration block. The Victorian elevations feature 2, 3 and 4-light windows of the different types described above, with additional two-storey bays, gables, gabled dormers and chimney stacks providing varied articulation. Scars of new stonework are still evident where additions and features have been removed.

The rubble walls of the original courtyards survive at the rear to some extent, particularly the wall bordering the inner side of the perimeter drive, splayed outwards beside the octagonal shelter and stepped down towards the front where two cross walls form a small yard entered through pointed-arch doorways.

Much of the original corridor system was retained until closure in 1997, but the subsequent conversion to apartments has necessarily destroyed most of this.