Survey Data

Reg No

50110476


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social


Original Use

Hostel (charitable)


In Use As

Apartment/flat (converted)


Date

1875 - 1880


Coordinates

316139, 232743


Date Recorded

27/07/2017


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Detached seven-bay three-storey T-plan former women’s charitable institution, built 1879, having returns to rear (east) elevation. Extended to south and altered 1895 and 1930. Now in use as apartments. Pitched slate roof with terracotta ridge cresting and ball finials, gabled half dormer windows having carved timber bargeboards, red brick chimneystacks with terracotta pots. Cast-iron rainwater goods, carved red brick eaves course. Red brick, laid in Flemish bond to walls. Gabled projecting breakfront to side (north) elevation. Coursed rubble granite having red brick quoins to return to south elevation. Stepped brick panels to apexes of half dormer windows. Cogged brick stringcourses and sill-courses, moulded terracotta and carved red brick plinth course. Square-headed window openings with chamfered terracotta sills, continuous carved red brick hood-mouldings to ground- and first-floor windows, having one-over-one and one-over-one with four-pane top margin timber sliding sash windows, those to dormers with additional leaded light over. Pointed-arch entrance to front (west) elevation, having carved stepped reveal and surround. Square-headed doorway to recessed porch, timber panelled door and carved timber doorcase, plain sidelights and overlights. Tiled floor and granite threshold to porch. Double-leaf cast-iron gate with decorative finials, flanked by square-plan red brick piers having pointed caps. Matching railings set on red brick wall with to front. Situated adjacent to contemporary charitable institution.

Appraisal

This well-executed and attractive institutional building retains salient features, such as the sash windows and finely moulded chimneystacks. The façade is greatly enriched by the decorative brickwork and a large entrance porch. It was built, to designs by J.H. Bridgeford. It was designed to accommodate governesses who came from respectable backgrounds but who found themselves in a precarious financial position in later years. This building is an important reminder of the social history of the area, forming an interesting group with other institutional buildings in the area, notably the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear hospital and the adjacent St. Mathias's Home for the Aged, the latter also built to designs by Bridgeford.