Late 19th century, Middlesex Convalescent Home (EHER 15653)

Late 19th century convalescent home. This convalescent home was established in 1896 for Middlesex Hospital patients. The 3-storey building is T-shaped and brick-built with corridors and staircases of cement-concrete and verandas for 54 patients. Isolation block to North-East.

The Middlesex Convalescents Home was built in 1896 to designs produced by Keith. D. Young F.R.I.B.A. for the benefit of patients in the Middlesex Hospital, London. Accommodation was originally provided for 54 patients, (rising to 90 by 1924) with four rooms set aside for nurses needing rest or convalescing from illness. Constructed in a T-shaped plan, the three-storey front range faces south and contains a central block flanked by two large day room and dormitory wings. The central block was reserved for staff use with nurse and matron sitting rooms, committee rooms, and linen and box rooms on the ground-floor; a staircase provided access to staff accommodation within the first-floor and attic-storey. The ground-floor wings contained male/female day rooms with corresponding dormitories above on both storeys. Surgeries were positioned beside the day rooms with open-well staircases immediately north; these provided patient access to the dormitories. The male/female day-rooms were identical in size and layout, but attached to the end wall of the male (eastern) day-room was a glazed smoking room (demolished). Both day-rooms had large bays with full glazed double doors opening out onto broad verandas added to the south-facing facade. An east/west corridor provides access to the four six-bed dormitories and the sanitary/bathing annexes. Separate toilet facilities for the staff lie within small blocks that extend from the rear of the central range. Two corridors (male/female) extend to the rear of the central block to the dining room; a separate room being reserved for nurses and staff. This area also contained the service range comprising the kitchen, scullery, larder and stores. To the north-east and connected by covered walkways was a free-standing isolation block with a single bed ward and attendant nurses room. The laundry block which included a wash-room, drying closet, engine house and boiler house stood to the north. Water was obtained from an on-site well and stored in a tower adjacent to the boiler house; it was then pumped to holding tanks in the roof-space of the main building. Unfortunately, the rear range which includes the dining hall, kitchen, isolation block, laundry, boiler house and engine house together with the sanitary annexes has been demolished. The surviving three-storey range is built in an Elizabethan-Tudor style with elevations of red stock brick laid in English bond and gable ended roofs covered with plain red clay tiles. A wall plinth extends around the base of the building and clay tile hanging projects from the second-floor brick work up to the eaves. Three gable dormers with open timber-work and large three light sashes project through the eaves of the east and west dormitory wings; six tall stacks extend through the roof-line. The central five-bay block, which breaks forward, has single bay projections flanking a three bay entrance block; the projections contain large canted sash windows on both ground- and first-floors surmounted by gable ended and jettied dormers within open timber-work. A three bay flat-headed dormer with a central segmental pediment lies in-between. The main entrance stands within the eastern-most bay of the central block and has a stone semi-circular headed arch of two chamfered orders, a square headed label with an integral plaque, stopped ends and stone quoined jambs. The windows of the main wings have segmental heads and tall sash windows with glazed hoppers above. The timber lean-to verandas attached to the day-rooms have low plain balustrades and flat roofs which may have doubled as sun balconies for the first-floor. A contemporary two-storey L-shaped lodge house lies to the south-west; it is built in a similar architectural style with a tile hung first-floor, pitched roofs and sash windows. Stone gate posts crowned with spheres mounted on ornate pedestals still flank the original main entrance and the perimeter wall, facing Holland Road, also survives. The site has since passed into private ownership and single-storey bungalows for the elderly have been erected in the grounds. <1><2> Archaeological Potential: Although the rear service range and sanitary blocks have been demolished the surviving building probably retains important information on the design and evolution of a purpose-built convalescents home. It demonstrates a unison of architecture and medical practice with its south-facing aspect, sun verandas, large windows, wide corridors and sanitary annexes. The building also provides important information on gender segregation within its plan including separate routes of circulation for the staff. <1> Site Significance: One of three convalescents homes identified during the survey (SMR Nos. 15652 and 15654); although its importance has been reduced following the loss of the rear range the building still retains many important features. It is a good surviving example and is of national importance. <1> Site Management: The building is in good order, but has recently come onto the market and may therefore be under threat. An internal inspection should be undertaken at the earliest opportunity to assess the survival of internal spaces/features/decoration. Prior to any future works an ‘impact assessment’ may be needed to assess which elements of the original fabric warrant retention and detailed recording needs to form an integral element of any future development proposal. <1> Information from NRHE data transfer. Additional source: <3>