Survey Data

Reg No

22830209


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social


Previous Name

Waterford Leper Hospital


Original Use

Hospital/infirmary


Date

1780 - 1790


Coordinates

260939, 111647


Date Recorded

13/08/2003


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Detached fifteen-bay three-storey over part raised basement hospital, dated 1785, on a U-shaped plan centred on three-bay three-storey pedimented breakfront with three-bay three-storey advanced end bays; five-bay three-storey side elevations. Reconstructed, 1896-7, to accommodate alternative use. Closed, 1987. Undergoing reconstruction, 2002, to accommodate proposed alternative use. Pitched slate roofs on L-shaped plans behind parapets; pyramidal slate roof behind parapet (breakfront), ridge tiles, paired rendered central chimney stacks having chamfered stringcourses below capping supporting terracotta pots, and concealed rainwater goods with cast-iron octagonal or ogee hoppers and downpipes. Rendered, ruled and lined walls on dragged cut-limestone moulded plinth on rendered, ruled and lined base with drag edged rusticated cut-limestone quoins to corners supporting ogee-detailed cornices below parapets having cut-limestone coping; rendered, ruled and lined surface finish (breakfront) on dragged cut-limestone moulded plinth on rendered, ruled and lined base with drag edged rusticated cut-limestone quoins to corners supporting ogee-detailed open bed pediment. Segmental-headed central door opening approached by flight of eleven drag edged tooled cut-limestone steps, drag edged cut-limestone doorcase with pilasters on plinths supporting ogee-detailed cornice on triglyph-detailed frieze on architrave framing timber panelled door having fanlight. Square-headed flanking window openings with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and rendered surrounds with ogee-detailed hood mouldings on fluted consoles framing one-over-one sash windows. Square-headed window openings (first floor) with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing one-over-one sash windows having overlights. "Venetian Window" (top floor) with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sill, and concealed dressings framing fixed-pane fitting having one-over-one sidelights. Square-headed window openings with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing one-over-one sash windows having overlights. Square-headed window openings (top floor) with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing one-over-one sash windows. Interior undergoing reconstruction, 2002, including (ground floor): central hall retaining cantilevered staircase, and modillioned plasterwork cornice to ceiling. Set in landscaped grounds on a wedge-shaped corner site with margined tooled limestone ashlar piers to perimeter having cut-limestone stringcourses below shallow pyramidal capping supporting cast-iron railings.

Appraisal

A hospital erected to designs by John Roberts (1712-96) representing an important component of the late eighteenth-century built heritage of Waterford with the architectural value of the composition, 'a magnificent hospital in the suburbs capable of receiving more than 400 patients' (Lewis 1837 II, 693), confirmed by such attributes as the symmetrical footprint centred on a Classically-detailed breakfront; the doorcase not only demonstrating good quality workmanship in a silver-grey limestone but also showing a margined hub-and-spoke fanlight; the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression; and the parapeted roofs: meanwhile, aspects of the composition illustrate the reconstruction of the hospital as the Waterford County and City Infirmary to designs by Albert Edward Murray (1849-1924) of Dawson Street, Dublin (The Irish Builder and Engineer 25th August 1906, 690). NOTE: The first leper hospital was founded (1211 or 1212) by King John (1166-1216) 'and stood in Stephen-street... The good king's charity is said to have been evoked under peculiar circumstances. During his stay at Lismore his sons having fed rather luxuriantly upon the salmon and cider which the place produced so abundantly, a skin disease was their punishment for the indulgence, which, as leprosy was then prevalent was pronounced to be the fell malady. This being represented to the king he founded and endowed an hospital for the cure of the disease in Waterford'. The leper hospital was closed by the Corporation of Waterford on the grounds that leprosy had been eradicated from Ireland but Reverend Downes (----), 'an individual since well known for his extended charities', instituted legal proceedings and obtained a decree appropriating the funds of the charity to the relief of the sick and maimed poor. The funds originally supported an infirmary (1774) 'for the reception of 50 indigent persons' but 'the increase in funds, caused by the additional endowments with the growing value of the property, subsequently empowered the Trustees to build the present substantial structure [and] an inscription upon a stone over the hall door relates that the building was erected in 1785' (Egan 1894, 400-1).