Description

TQ 55 SE
2/202

HILDENBOROUGH
RIDING LANE (east side)
Glen House, Princess Christian's Hospital

II
Residential home for the mentally handicapped, originally designed as the girls' home at Princess Christian's Farm Colony, a farming community funded by the C19 National Association for Promoting the Welfare of the Feebleminded. 1916, designed by Clough Williams-Ellis with additions and alterations before 1923 by Conrad Birdwood Willcocks (information from the RIBA library). Circa 1930s addition built by the colonists. Roughcast with a probably late C20 tiled roof; brick stacks. The style is plain early C18 and although the north elevation has some similarities to an almshouse the garden elevation is closer to a small country house. The later addition is out of scale with the original but uses matching materials and windows.

Plan and Development: a long, approximately rectangular north-facing building, the circa 1930s addition at the east end. The original range is symmetrically-planned double depth with two span roofs, the centre block set slightly south of the flanking wings, forming a recessed entrance block to the north and containing a large room (probably the original dining room) projecting forward to the south. The east and west wings have longitudinal corridors with small rooms off them to north and south, the first floor corridor lit by roof lights. Identical flights of stairs rise at the outer end of each wing, the west wing preserves a doorway, facing the stair, in the west end. There are symmetrically-positioned blocked doorways into the wings on the north side, close to the stairs. The 1930s addition is a large, rectangular block adjoining the east end and projecting to the south. Although there have been some alterations to the original plan, including some new internal partitions and the removal of one chimney stack, these changes have not destroyed the overall layout of 1916.

Exterior: long, low north (entrance) elevation, single storey and attic. Roof hipped at ends; the stacks with tall, slim, rectangular shafts with hollow-chamfered coping. The 1916 building preserves its original twelve-pane sash windows with thick rectangular glazing bars. The three bay entrance block set back in the centre is under a big gable in the form of a moulded pediment with a platband below. Central round-headed outer doorway with a keyblock, flanked by paired pilasters with twelve-pane sashes to left and right. In the gable above the doorway twelve-pane sashes flank a round-headed niche containing a large statue representing one of the original farm 'colonists'. It is a high quality realist sculpture of a girl in which was presumably the uniform of 1916, a cotton cap, long dress and apron. The girl holds a scroll. The windows and niche, which is crowned with a ball finial, form a cartouche with scrollwork in relief to left and right. Above the entrance block on the main ridge, there is an openwork timber bellcote in the form of a bell-shaped cupola, bell missing.

Six bay flanking wings with a platband below the deep eaves, each wing with three flat-roofed attic dormers. Evidence of a blocked doorway to each wing, replaced in the west wing by a twelve-pane sash. Originally symmetrical south elevation, the two-storey four-bay centre block projecting forward, the six-bay wings single-storey and attic, with platbands below the deep eaves. The centre block has rusticated quoins and a parapet above a deep cornice with a dentil frieze; twelve-pane first floor sashes, six over nine pane ground floor sashes, one converted to a door; first floor oculi to the returns. The wings have flat-roofed attic dormers with paired sashes and an additional dormer to the east wing. The 1930s east block repeats the details of the centre block with rusticated quoins, a cornice and similar sash windows but with moulded glazing bars.

Interior: some original 1916 joinery survives: two-panel early C18 style doors with fielded panels. The stairs have alternating splat and turned balusters.

The Princess Christian Farm Colony was established by Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, her sister Princess Marie Louise and four local residents, including Dr Langdon Down who first described Down's syndrome. They purchased land and a farmstead from Lord Derby and founded a largely self-supporting farm community for the mentally handicapped, whose parents contributed according to their means. The complex was opened in 1910 and absorbed into the National Health service in 1948.

Plans and a photograph of the front elevation were published in 'Recent English Domestic Architecture', Vol. 5, ed. Macartney (n.d., circa 1916). The photograph shows that the doorways have been altered.

Clough Williams-Ellis, best known for his development at Port Meiron in Wales was not a prolific architect. Glen House is an interesting example of philanthropic Edwardian architecture, its scale and detail designed to accord with the philosophy of a community which did not incarcerate the mentally handicapped.

Listing NGR: TQ5677549415

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26540658

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.

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