Description

TEWKESBURY

SO83SE GLOUCESTER ROAD
859-1/2/180 (North East side)
14/02/85 Webber House
(Formerly Listed as:
GLOUCESTER ROAD
(North East side)
The Holm Hospital)

GV II

Retirement apartments, formerly House of Industry and Union
Workhouse. Built by Act of Parliament 1792-6, possibly to
designs of George Byfield, a designer of gaols; later a
hospital, now (1991) apartments. English bond brickwork, slate
roofs, brick stacks.
PLAN: a symmetrical composition with large square central
block with short one-bay links to narrow cross wings; the site
falls away at the back to reveal the basement level. Windows
generally are replacement tripartite plain pseudo-sashes under
brick voussoirs, and on flush bullnose brick cills.
EXTERIOR: centre block is 3 storeys and basement, in 5 bays
with windows in reducing proportions, and with approx 1.5m of
plain brickwork above the second floor lights, all under a
low-pitched hipped roof. Centre is a large late C20 steel and
glass porch on a ramp and 3 steps. Inner door under plain
square opening. Set forward by a half-brick depth the link
units in 2 storeys have sashes set in a sunk arched panel; a
third storey, rendered, with one sash, has been added, and is
slightly set back from the brick parapet.
The wings are set forward, with a sash at ground and first
floors on the returns, to a narrow one-bay gabled end
containing a lunette. Each wing has 2 large plain stacks at
the inner eaves. The whole building is on a moulded brick
plinth, and the centre block has a brick dentil eaves. Right
return is in 5 bays, the centre one having a set-back
full-height arched panel. 5 bays; C19 hipped dormers with
2-light casements over 2 floors of sashes, but central C20
wide glazed door unit with pediment, on flight of brick steps
to concrete bridge.
The NE front, facing the Abbey (qv), is similar to the street
front, but with an extra storey in the basement plinth, which
also has a central glazed door. The left wing is similar to
the right one.
The INTERIOR, which was very plain, has now been modified by
the insertion of partitions to provide multiple apartments.
This was a relatively rare example of a pre-Poor Law Amendment
Act Workhouse, and it became the Tewkesbury Union Workhouse in
1835. The late C20 alterations have removed a number of
intrusive elements, and the street frontage, recorded in 1985
as painted, has been stripped back to the brickwork. The
glazed entrance replaces a former flat concrete hood of the
1950s.
A somewhat austere, but complete and balanced design occupying
an important site in the approach to the town from the S, and
in views from the Abbey.

Listing NGR: SO8891432092

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26569470

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

• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)