Survey Data
Reg No
20906331
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social, Technical
Original Use
Hospital/infirmary
In Use As
Hospital/infirmary
Date
1950 - 1955
Coordinates
172461, 78052
Date Recorded
31/07/2007
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached irregular-plan thirteen-bay hospital, built 1954. Comprising thirteen-bay three-storey front (south) block having single-bay five-storey tower to east, two-bay two-storey extension to west. Open flat-roofed entrance canopy to extension and flat-roofed glazed entrance porch to tower. Two-storey over basement wing to rear (north) elevation of tower and rear of front block, single-storey flat-roofed entrance porch to west end of front block, with single-storey wing to rear of west end of front block. Flat roofs with cast-iron rainwater goods and rendered chimneystacks. Roughcast rendered walls with smooth rendered plinth. Square-headed openings with steel casement and pivoting windows and glazed steel double leaf doors with overlights to front elevation, with glazed timber double leaf doors with sidelights and overlights within. Glazed steel door with sidelights to porch to west. Full-width open-ended courtyard formed by multiple-bay single-storey outbuildings to rear. Outbuildings with flat roofs, cast-iron rainwater goods, rendered walls, and square-headed openings with steel fittings.
Appraisal
Part of large coherently planned group of hospital structures, built as Tuberculosis Sanatorium under Doctor Noel Browne as Minister for Health. Frankly modern in style, flat roofs, large square-headed and strip windows, cantilevered porches, and minimal adornment typical of mid-twentieth-century institutional architecture and evidently informed by Le Corbusier's work. The complexity of the plans is lent coherence by the consistent and restrained use of finishes and materials. Part of a remarkably complete and well preserved scheme, enhanced and contextualised by mature grounds.