Description

MACCLESFIELD

SJ87SE VICTORIA ROAD 886-1/3/209 Parkside Hospital (original blocks 17/03/77 only)

II

County asylum, now psychiatric hospital. 1868-71. To designs by Robert Griffiths of Stafford. Red brick with yellow brick and some stone dressings; Welsh slate roofs. This listing applies to the principal hospital complex designed by Griffiths (which is remarkably complete) and does not extend to the later buildings. PLAN: a regular ground plan arranged around quadrangles (some completely, and others partially enclosed and some now occupied with later infill). A 2-storeyed administration building with 5-stage clock tower stands forward of the main blocks and is connected to them by lower ancillary ranges (kitchens, stores). Central to the plan are the surgeon's and matron's offices and rooms together with the dining hall (which is flanked by 2 distinctive towers with leaded cupolas). All this forms a N-S axis; intersecting on an E-W axis is a single-storeyed corridor range with the 2-storeyed former 'excited blocks' to the exteme E and W. Running to the S of the corridor range are 4 similar ranges which give access to the 3-storeyed ward blocks I to IV which are otherwise detached. Between corridors I and II, and III and IV, and aligned E-W, are the storeyed infirmaries, one for each sex. The women's side lay to the W, the men's to the E. Standing forward of ward blocks II and III, and on the administration-dining hall axis, is the detached former superintendent's house. Detached to the NW is the former laundry (on the women's side) and to the NE the former workshops (on the men's). Between the administration block and the laundries is a further storeyed range, which although apparently not part of the original plan, is stylistically of a piece and must have been added shortly afterwards. The overall style is a hybrid Italianate/Rundbogenstil. EXTERIOR: characteristic decorative features include round or segmentally-headed window arches with varied coloured voussoirs and keyblocks; stone plinths, and lintel bands; decorative brick cornices; overhanging eaves, sometimes with console and sill brackets; ridge stacks have decorative brick banding and moulded stone caps. Special decorative effects are reserved for the entrance/administration block with a projecting central tower porch, a principal arched doorway of 2 orders, one and 2-light windows to the lower 2 floors, a tall 2nd bay with recessed round-headed panels connected by impost band, the top-most stage with the clocks to each face corbelled out and supporting a short spire. The ranges connecting the administration and central blocks to the outer elevations (which are single-storeyed) have an arcade internally, corridors) of round-headed arches with coloured brick voussoirs, impost band and circular windows. Angle towers (withe external entrances) effect the junctions between these ranges. Dining hall (burnt out and roofless at time of inspection, June 1992) with flanking towers (round-headed entrance arches with roundels above, the upper stages with tall round-headed blind arches, with leaded ogee caps), large windows with basic tracery set in arches of 2 orders with impost bands. A polygonal shallow 'apse' to S. The superintendent's house is of 2 storeys, windows with raised surrounds, but otherwise with detailing similar to the other principal ranges. The kitchens have a tall chimney (which has lost its decorative cap). Some boundary walls demarcating enclosed recreation areas have been removed. Griffiths was a significant architect who specialised in hospitals of this sort.

Listing NGR: SJ8984274005

External Links

• Wikidata Q26505451

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Recommended Books

• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)