Barnes Hospital

Details

SJ 88 NE
558/5/10013

KINGSWAY (East, off)
Barnes Hospital

II
Convalescent hospital. 1871-75, by Lawrence Booth of Manchester, for the Manchester Royal Infirmary. Alterations c1893 by Pennington & Bridgen, and c1939-45 by Thomas Worthington & Son, both of Manchester. Recreation room and chapel, mid and late C20. Additions to south, c1972, not included.

French Gothic Revival style. Red brick, with blue brick, ashlar and terracotta dressings. Welsh slate roofs with decorative ridge tiles and prominent coped stacks. Plinths, sill and impost bands, coped parapets and gables. Mainly original glazing bar windows with tilting top lights, flat headed on the ground floor and with Caernarvon arches above. Pointed arched window openings with enriched surrounds.

Cruciform plan with main axis running north-south. Central block containing offices, patient accommodation in east and west side ranges, each ending in a substantial cross wing. North range comprising kitchens, boiler house and services. C20 recreation room, chapel and dining room are on the east side of this range, on the site of the former winter garden.

South range of main block, two storeys plus attics, has coped south gable topped with a figure of an angel. On each side, paired windows on each floor. Mansard roof with cast iron crest, containing gabled dormers. To east, C20 stair enclosure, two storeys. To west, clock tower four stages, with two-stage lantern roof topped with an iron crown. Angle buttresses to the lower stages, pointed arched main doorway, mullioned windows at attic level, louvred openings above, and clock faces on each side.

East and west ranges, two storeys, eight bays, have continuous ranges of crocketed gablets to south. Central gabled porches c1900, flanked on their outer sides by glazed verandahs, covering four-circled round windows. On the north side, shallow projections each with three tall windows divided by buttresses, lighting the axial corridor. Beyond, projecting sanitary blocks, then three smaller windows.

East and west cross wings have the patients' entrances with original doors and glazed screens. To east and west, porte cocheres with round arches, and hipped roofs behind parapets. Canted projections in the angles on each side. The canted south ends of the wings have late C20 openings inserted on each floor. North ends have splayed square corner towers with pyramidal roofs behind parapets.

North range of main block has a pointed arched arcade to the ground floor, formerly giving access to the winter garden. The mansard roof has an elaborate pyramid-roofed wooden ventilator.
Northern service range has a two-storey section abutting the east-west range, with an entrance on the east side. North of this, a lower range, single storey plus attics over a basement. East side has a projecting gabled bay with three lancets, then five windows. Above, two gabled dormers and two massive ridge stacks. At the north end, a single storey plant room with a flat roof. On the west side, hipped dining room, C20, two storeys plus basement, with the lower stages of a square sanitary block and a canted stair enclosure.

On the west side of the northern range, single storey chapel with flat roof, late C20, and single storey recreation room, mid C20. These are attached to the main building by a short corridor.

INTERIOR
Corridors, wards and other public rooms have late C20 suspended ceilings. Principal entrance has original door and glazed screens. Lobbies on each floor have triple arcades with square piers.

Several rooms on each floor of the south range have cornices and C19 4-panel doors with moulded surrounds. Attics have chamfered pointed arched opening under tower. Open well principal staircase, pine, with turned newels and chamfered square balusters.

Side ranges have a spinal corridor on each floor, flanked to south by wards and smaller rooms, and to north by sanitary blocks, treatment and service rooms. At the ends, dogleg staircases with square newels and original handrails, the balusters boxed-in. First floor corridors have exposed principal rafters on corbels, and cast iron balustrades to the light wells. On the south side, former day room with arch braced principal rafters.
Cross wings have day rooms to south and wards to north, those on the first floor with arch braced principal rafters on corbels, glazed screens and doors.

Northern range has lean-to corridor on west side, covering original openings. Open well staircase with panelled balustrade, mid C20, in the angle adjoining the dining room. Dining room has coved cross beams. Chapel has coved ceiling and square recess at east end.

Barnes Hospital is an early example of a convalescent hospital, noteworthy for its size and its architectural distinctiveness.

SOURCES:
Taylor, J. Hospital and asylum architecture in England, 1840-1914.
Pattison I, Goodall I . RCHME survey report, 1993.




Listing NGR: SJ8523588954

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

479000

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Taylor, J, Hospital and Asylum Architecture in England, 1840-1914, (1991)

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.