Details
SZ 69 NW
1137/4/51
20.04.83
GOSPORT
HASLAR ROAD
Ward blocks A, B, C, D, E, F and Centre at Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar
II*
Naval hospital. 1746-62; altered and partly infilled C20, N ranges unified 1967. Preliminary design by Sir Jacob Ackworth, Surveyor to the Navy, developed by Theodore Jacobsen; built by James Horne, surveyor, and John Turner, Portsmouth dockyard carpenter. Dark red Flemish bond brick with paler rubbed brick heads and Portland dressings and carving, brick ridge stacks and slate hipped roof with a central ridge lantern. PLAN: 6 parallel ranges of ward blocks form three sides of a large courtyard open to the N, with corner residential blocks containing octagonal courtyards. EXTERIOR: Palladian style. 3 storeys; main front a 3:2:3:10:7:10:3:2:3-window range. A massive symmetrical front has a double-stepped ashlar plinth, first-floor plat band, cornice and parapet, the end 3-window sections set forward, a 4-storey central section with a pediment and raking parapets to 2-window flanking sections. The central section has stone bands, round ground-floor arches connected by imposts, the middle one a through arch, outer ones with inner round-arched 6/6-pane sashes; 3 first-floor 20/20-pane sashes and second floor round-arched lights within rectangular stone frames with bracketed cills and panelled transoms between, and upper 8/8-pane sashes in stone surrounds. A fine, richly-carved tympanum with George II coat of arms and allegorical figures and emblems depicting Navigation and Commerce by Thomas Pierce (1752). End 2-bay linking sections between projections have 2 round ground-floor arches. Central through arch has quadripartite vaulting on massive stone piers to a paved courtyard, and 4 stone door cases with fully-detailed cornice, frieze, and architrave. Windows with rubbed brick flat heads to 6/6-pane sashes and 3/3-pane sashes to the second floor. Coupled side wings have plainer elevations with similar articulation, most sashes replaced by mid C20 glazing; central pedimented 2-storey 3-window unit connected by single-storey; 3-window arcade, formerly led through to the courtyard. Inner elevations similar with a ground-floor round-arched arcade, 2 bays deep with flat beam ceiling, mostly infilled by late C20 glazing, and splayed corner treatment. INTERIOR not inspected; a C18 stair reported in one end of the E range. HISTORY: The construction of the first general naval hospital followed a request from the Earl of Sandwich to George II, because of great losses through sickness in the Spanish wars. It was intended for 1500 men, with a fourth closing range which was never built, though railings (1796) connected the two ends to discourage deserting by convalescents. By 1780 it could accommodate 2100 men. Jacobsen was the architect for the London Foundling Hospital (1742-52), and his design, with cross- (if dimly-) lit wards, was considered an important advance in hospital planning. It remained the largest military hospital in England until Netley was constructed a century later. Though determinedly plain, as instructed by the Admiralty, Haslar is an outstanding example of a large C18 hospital, and a very impressive instance of C18 institutional reform and improvement. (RCHME Report, NMR 100117; Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Hampshire, 1989, pp. 243-5; Coad, J, The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850, Aldershot, 1989).
Listing NGR: SZ6190298874
