Details
SN
STANLEY
SE 32 SW
ABERFORD ROAD
(west side)
4/100 Stanley Royd Hospital:
eastern part of main range
GV comprising early C19 former
paupers' lunatic asylum.
II
Pauper lunatic asylum, now mental hospital. 1818 with wings added 1828 and
1833, by Watson and Pritchett of York for the West Riding County Council;
later C19 and C20 alterations and additions. White brick in flemish bond
with stone dressings and Welsh slate roof. Laid out on an "H"-plan with short
wings projecting from the cross-piece which were later extended. Each of the
wings terminates in a pavilion and at the two crossing points are
octagon-towers from which the wards and exercise yards could be observed. 3
storeys with 4-storey octagons and pavilions to ends of added wings.
Cross-piece of 1:3:3:3:1 bays with centre break and end bays canted (forming
one side of the octagons); wings project at right angles, each of 1:5:1 bays,
the end bays projecting slightly; at either end of the cross-piece, beyond
the octagons, were former 1-bay wings, these each extended by 10 bays.
Stone plinth, 1st floor band, 1st and 2nd floor sill bands and eaves cornice
windows, now with late C20 centre-pivoting casements, have flat brick arches
and stone sills; tripled windows to end bays of wings and to canted bays.
Entrance front central 3-bay break, formerly under pediment, has giant angle
pilasters rising to cornice with later attic storey above; bridged windows
to bays 3 and 9 and to alternate sides of octagon bowers which have string
below parapet; roof, hipped over end bays, has various skylights, stacks and
ridge louvres; central cupola has octagonal base, tall Roman Doric columns
and entablature below second stage which has squat, square columns, dome and
large weather vane. C20 alterations include doors, throughway inserted in bay
9, ground floor windows of canted bays and bay-window addition to gable of
right-hand projecting ring; additions to right return of this wing not of
special interest.
Rear elevation: 3 central bays break forward under corniced pediment and
have central 6-panel door under fanlight with glazing bars, flanked by
full-height openings and similar openings above in segmental-arched recesses,
the central 1st and 2nd floor windows blind. Blocked oculus to tympanium. C19
and C20 additions to ends and returns of wings are not of special interest.
The extended wings on either side, are in the same style, that on the east
with partial basement and large added ridge louvre, that on the west further
extended and altered, the further extensions not of special interest
This asylum was only the sixth to be built in England, and was part of the
contemporary development of belief that lunatics should be treated humanely
and attempts made to cure them. Although built plainly and utilitarianly, the
asylum represented the most advanced thought on the design of such buildings,
and it provides an important link between the first attempts at
classification in an asylum's plans. Another important feature was the
octagon towers, within which rose spiral stairs, which gave onto fenestrated
embrasures over looking wards, corridors and exercise yards so that patients
and staff could be kept under close, but discreet, observation. The plan was
advanced in providing many single rooms for the patients. The utilitarianism
is shown in the use of the cupola for housing a cylinder from which exhaust
air from the building escaped.
A L Ashworth Stanley Royd Hospital, Wakefield. One hundred and fifty years
A History (1975)
E Harwood, The history and plan forms of purpose built lunatic asylums, with
a study of their conservation and reuse, M,A.Thesis, for the Architectural
Association.
Listing NGR: SE3390321726
