Description

GREAT YARMOUTH

TG5206 QUEEN'S ROAD
839-1/6/146 (South side)
05/08/74 St Nicholas' Hospital, Main Block
(Formerly Listed as:
QUEEN'S ROAD
Royal Naval Asylum)

GV II*

Naval hospital. 1809-11. By William Pilkington under
supervision of Edward Holl, Architect to the Navy Board.
Became naval barracks in 1818 and subsequently a general
hospital. Yellow brick laid in Flemish bond with dressings of
Portland stone. Slate roofs.
PLAN: quadrangle plan of single-depth wards, with W chapel.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. Each of the 4 wings linked by a
single-storey quadrant passageway. The north front has a
central 5-bay pediment over a rusticated stone entrance arch.
Fenestration throughout is generally of sash windows fitted
with 6/6 glazing bars. Platband at first floor continues round
entire exterior. North front has 2 full-height square
projections added later. Shallow gabled roofs. East, west and
south fronts also with 2 added projections in gault brick, the
south with an additional centre projection acting as an
entrance. The internal elevations of the 4 blocks basically
similar, each having an arcade under round arches of 29 bays,
arranged in the same rhythm: 3 bays, 10 bays, central 3
portico bays, 10 bays, 3 bays. The arcade is single-storeyed
and set in front of the 29 bays of sashes of the first floors.
The north and south porticos have pediments and project over
the full depth of the arcade while the east and west
pedimented porticos break forward only slightly. The ground
floor of each of these porticos continue the arcading but have
unfluted Roman Doric columns, doubled at the ends. Metope
frieze. The south portico has had its arcade bays blocked with
windows and has a polygonal lantern tower with clock faces.
The corner quadrants each have 2 similar columns in antis. The
west portico contains the chapel and has instead of 6/6
first-floor sashes 3 plate tracery windows, which are repeated
on both floors of the exterior elevation.
INTERIOR: extremely plain. No original main rooms or
staircases. The principal staircase to the west of the north
entrance is boarded but probably has wide stick balusters.
Chapel interior rises through 2 storeys, with a moulded string
course marking the nominal floor-line. Coved plastered ceiling
without decoration.

HISTORICAL NOTE: the cupola formerly lit the first-floor
operating theatre. A unique piece of planning for a military
building, whose closest model is the late C17 Royal Hospital,
Kilmainham in Dublin, and possibly influenced by Haslar naval
hospital; walkways for moving and exercising patients were
standard elements in military hospitals of the period. Built
for casualties from the North Sea squadron in the Napoleonic
War, it was stil admired for its well-lit and ventilated
design by the hospital reformers in the 1860s. An impressive
and original instance of hospital planning and military
architecture, forming part of a complete group.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North-east Norfolk and
Norwich: London: 1973-: 148; SAVE Britain's Heritage: Deserted
Bastions: London: 1993-: 124).

Listing NGR: TG5289006400

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17554508

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

• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014