Hugh Sexey’s Hospital, Bruton, Somerset
Listed Grade I and II; Bruton conservation area
New community room
Hugh Sexey’s hospital was endowed under the terms of the will of Hugh Sexey (died 1619), lawyer and benefactor of his birthplace and latterly Auditor in the Exchequer of James 1 from 1603. This charitable endowment led to the foundation of a hospital for 12 aged persons of Bruton with both master’s house and chapel.
The original courtyard with the chapel and former master’s house (Grade I) was begun in 1638 and sits on the south side of the High Street, to the west of the east wing (Grade II) which dates from the early nineteenth century and which was extended further to the east in 1882. Beyond that is the later master’s house. The hospital now houses 28 residents.
The new community room sits down below the relatively recent master’s house, due to the fall of the ground away from the hospital to the south. The brief was for the provision of a community room allowing level access but close to the main complex without obstructing views or affecting the significance of the listed buildings. The room itself needed to provide for 35 people sitting around tables, lavatories, kitchen, chair, and table store, with extra storage, accessible externally, for the garden, and landscaping with a concern for long-term ease of maintenance.
The main existing community room, the chapel, has a 17th-century interior with pews and fittings of considerable significance; it would not provide the space needed, in any case.
The new building, designed by Stephen Marshall Architects, sets the community room down the slope and meets the brief by allowing level access from the main buildings above by lift from a roof garden/terrace above the community room below.
A building at the level of the main almshouse buildings would have been tightly constrained in floor area and very obtrusive. Placing it a storey down means an additional terrace at the level of the main buildings, with the new community room below accessible by lift and stairs to its lower level. Therefore, it also gives lift access to the main gardens to the south.
The resulting building is a fine contemporary addition to the almshouse group which meets the needs of the brief very well.
There is some impact on the setting of the group from the lift housing at terrace level. Historic England agreed that it would not be great and, while acknowledging that it would be a prominent addition, considered ‘that it should complement the rest of the new-build by reflecting the materials and refined detailing which so define the host building and the wider Almshouse site’.
This addition provides an interesting model for future schemes for substantial additions on tricky almshouse sites.
