Description

TG 2208 SE BETHEL STREET
(south side)
22/61 Bethel Hospital
GV II*
Former Hospital, now Children's Psychiatric Clinic.
Late C17 or early C18, with additions of C18, C19 and early C20.
The 1899 rebuilding and repairs by E. Boardman. Brick and masonry
dressings with plain tile and slate roofs. H-plan with closing
north range and extensive dormitory ranges. The earliest block is
2-storey 'U' plan with north wings and a south facade of 7 irregular
bays. C18 sash windows with glazing bars, flat hood on consoles
with carved ends. Fronting Bethel Street, the north range, parallel
to the original spine, was refaced and widened in 1899,into a
2-storey plus attic storey symmetrical 5-bay block, the ends of
which were returned southwards to meet the north wings which were
heightened to 3 storey. Sash windows throughout with rubbed brick
flat arches. Masonry door surrounds. The central entry has a
shouldered architrave with triangular head and an exaggerated keystone.
Side lights with scrolled consoles beneath a carved oriel window.
First floor Venetian window and second floor double sash window
with apron. Semi-circular gable with masonry coping and quoins and an
ironwork weathervane. Within, an extrance corridor has a coved ceiling
with a blocked door surround and panelling of 1907 and leads to the
original north door with primitive Ionic pilasters supporting a segmental
pediment with a later inner door with semi-circular Gibbs surround.
Cross and axial ground floor ceiling beams with nicked chamfer stops.
Staggered butt purlin collar frame roofs with stopped-chamfer ties.
3 dormers in main spine and one in each of the wings. C19 ridge tiles.
Later south wings effecting H plan. Both are 2-storey plus attic
with arched recess in the gable, lunette with masonry arch and cill
course. The west wing has smaller first-floor lunettes facing into
the gardens Late C19 ground floor sash windows throughout and a
single-storey bay on the west wing only. 4 small dormers on each side
of each wing. The ground floor room in the east wing is decorated with
an early - mid C18 heavy torus plasterwork cornice and a panelled
overmantel with broken pediment above a later shouldered fireplace
surround with female head and hanging cloth carved in stone. The room
is lit by an extremely large sash window in the south gable. Roof
construction allows the tie beams to be lower than the wall plate and
allows greater attic space. Each truss has double butt purlins, collar
and downward raking strut and overlaid common rafters added in C19
contemporary with ridge tiles and gable coping. The two-storey dormitory
cell ranges were added flanking the width of the H plan and following
the later Bethel Street and Little Bethel Street frontages. Sash windows
throughout retaining original small panes. An inscription on the re-
positioned foundation stone reads "This house was built for benefit
of distrest Lunaticks An Dom: 1713.....Foundress was Mary Chapman,
who lived there until her death in 1724."

Listing NGR: TG2272108455

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17557143

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings