Former Maternity Ward (Block 2), Princess Royal Community Hospital, Huddersfield

Summary

Former maternity ward, Arts and Crafts 'bungalow' type, 1928, designed in response to the Maternity and Child Welfare Act of 1918.

Reasons for Designation

The former Maternity Ward (Block 2), Princess Royal Community Hospital, Greenhead Road, Huddersfield, 1928, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a very rare survival of a relatively intact 1928 maternity ward;

* a good-quality example of an Arts and Crafts-style bungalow ward;

* for its relatively unaltered exterior and a legible interior with a good survival of original fittings and fixtures.

Historic interest:

* it represents an important development in the provision of public health care, as a consequence of the Maternity and Child Welfare Act of 1918.

History

The passing of the Maternity and Child Welfare Act of 1918, allowed for municipal maternity hospitals, homes and clinics to be established, to give expectant mothers improved care. Huddersfield Municipal Maternity Home was built within the grounds of the former St Peter's Vicarage and was completed in 1928. The former vicarage was enlarged to become the nurses' home and administration office, and a new maternity ward was built 15m to the south, accessed by an external corridor. The new maternity home represented an important development in the provision of public health care, and was designed expressly to raise the standards of infection control, to reduce infant mortality.

The new 'bungalow' type maternity ward was built in the Arts and Crafts style, with half-timbered gables. It had a central axial corridor with well ventilated light and airy single occupance rooms on the southern side, and the nurses station, a delivery suite, baby bathing rooms, ablutions, sluices and toilets on the northern side. The single occupancy rooms were an important aspect of the design, reducing the risks from the contagious and potentially fatal, puerperal fever (childbed fever). Once the mothers and babies had recovered from the birth, they would be moved into one of two communal pavillion rooms, at either end of the building, to allow them to continue to recover and socialise with the other mothers. Part of the ethos of the new ward was that when the weather permitted, the mothers could open the doors or even go outside under supervision to sit out onto a patio for fresh air.

The success of the maternity home can be judged by the fact that it quickly become apparent that it was much too small to meet demand, so plans were drawn up to build three new ward buildings, all linked by external corridors, and an additional two-storey nurses' home to the west of the old vicarage. The new buildings were opened in July 1939 by Princess Mary, the then Princess Royal, and in 1940, the complex was given the new name of the Princess Royal Maternity Hospital. The site remained a maternity hospital for 56 years, with minor alterations and additions to the buildings including a single-storey annexe (Building 1) added during the mid-1960s, and an immersion birthing suite in about 1980. The last baby born at the hospital was in October 1984, after which, it became the Princess Royal Community Hospital.

Details

Former maternity ward, Arts and Crafts 'bungalow' type, 1928, designed in response to the Maternity and Child Welfare Act of 1918.

MATERIALS: coursed dressed stone block construction with ashlar dressings, pitched and gabled roofs clad in a green-grey slate, with half-timbered gables.

PLAN: sub-rectangular-plan, with cross-wing pavilions, and attached rectangular toilet blocks to the rear (north) elevation.

The attached link corridors are not of special interest and are excluded from the listing.

EXTERIOR: the main nine-bay (south) elevation of the single-storey 'bungalow-style' structure has a central doorway in a canted bay flanked by narrow sash windows beneath a projecting gable, with three sash windows and two double doors to either side, and two end pavilions beneath gables. The half-timbered gable ends have vertical studs, exposed eaves protected by barge boards that have projecting purlin ends, and are crowned by ball finials. The central gable differs as it has a studded timber frame with a tie beam and down swinging braces, which are supported on double moulded timber brackets, raised off ashlar shield-shaped corbels. The windows in the main range are fitted with six-over-one sashes with ashlar sills, and each room of the south elevation has an outward-opening double door with a window in the frame alongside, separated by an ashlar mullion, and an eight-light casement fanlight above. The gable ends have similar arrangements, with a central double door and a taller window to each side; however, the sash windows are in timber frames with multi-light casements above, which hinge at the base, and tilt inwards when opened. The two side elevations each have three similar sash windows.The link corridor attached to the south elevation is not of special interest and is not part of the listing.

The rear (north) elevation has a similar overall appearance; however, there are no doors in the pavillions, a short corridor in each of the re-entrant angles between the pavilions and the rear wall, lead into small toilet blocks. The central rear entrance is hidden by the external link corridor from Block 9, and has three matching sashes to the left and one sash and a large multi-light window to the right. The link corridor attached to the north elevation is not of special interest and is not part of the listing.

The main range has a pitched roof with a central decorative ventilation cupola in the ridge, with an off-set stone chimney in the southern slope, three skylights close to the ridge, and a large glazed deadlight over room G13 (the former delivery room) in the northern slope. The two cross-wing pavilions have gabled roofs, each with a central ventilation cupola, and the toilet blocks have hipped roofs. All the roofs are drained by cast-iron rainwater goods.

INTERIOR: the building is entered from a doorway in the north elevation, from the external link corridor to the Administration Building (Block 9). This was the original main entrance and leads into the central circulation area, situated beneath a large skylight. It provides access left and right into axial corridors that are also lit from above by skylights and give access to all rooms. The former single occupancy ward rooms are situated on the southern side of the axial corridor, and the former delivery rooms, nurses' stations, baby bathing room, ablutions, sluices, and toilets are to the north. The former central room on the southern side of the central circulation area, became a passageway in 1939, leading to the external link corridor. Most of the rooms are entered by original double swing doors, with circular observation windows. The casement windows are all operated by original crank-arm mechanisms with brass crank handles. Although the rooms are now used for alternative purposes, the basic plan form remains largely unaltered. The external link corridors are not of special interest and are not part of the listing.

Sources

Books and journals
Richardson, Harriet, English Hospitals 1660-1948: A Survey of their Architecture and Design, (1998), 72 and 107

End of official list entry

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