Survey Data
Reg No
50070363
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social, Technical
Previous Name
Richmond District Lunatic Asylum
Original Use
Laundry
Date
1890 - 1900
Coordinates
314484, 235457
Date Recorded
08/11/2012
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached former laundry, built c.1895, comprising four adjoined gabled ranges, boiler house adjoining north-west elevation, gabled block and recent single-storey corridor to south-east elevation. Pitched slate roofs, clerestory windows to three of four ranges, limestone coping, cast-iron rainwater goods, terracotta ridge tiles, moulded yellow brick eaves course. Snecked rock-faced rusticated limestone walls, yellow brick block-and-start quoins, and capping to plinth course. Yellow brick platband at impost level to south-west elevation of south-east block. Blind oculi to apices of gables, yellow brick surrounds. Segmental-arched window openings, yellow brick sill course, voussoirs and surrounds, masonry sills, timber sash windows: six-over-six pane, four-over-four pane, three-over-three pane with tripartite overlights, two-over-four pane, steel rails to some. Timber framed windows to clerestory level. Segmental-arched door openings to north-west elevation, yellow brick voussoirs and block-and-start surrounds, double-leaf timber battened doors. Round-arched door opening to south-east elevation, yellow brick voussoirs, stepped reveal, double-leaf timber battened doors and spoked fanlight.
Appraisal
Following an outbreak of typhoid in the late nineteenth century, this disinfecting laundry was constructed to designs by W.H. Byrne in an attempt to improve the hygiene of the hospital. Clerestory windows serve a practical purpose in providing sufficient light to the interior, and create interesting roof profiles. Yellow brick dressings provide visual and textural contrast to the rusticated snecked limestone of the walls, and provide an element of uniformity between this and other buildings constructed in the complex around the same time, such as the mortuary to the south-east.