Former Carlton Hayes Hospital Chapel, Narborough, Leicestershire

Summary

Former Carlton Hayes Hospital chapel built 1904-1907 by S P Pick.

Description

Chapel to Carlton Hayes hospital, built in 1904-1907 by S P Pick.

MATERIALS: red brick with a Swithland slate roof and a timber bellcote.

PLAN: the chapel is rectangular in plan with porches and entrances at the north-west end, sitting perpendicular to the main body of the chapel. There are also porches and entrances located between the nave and chancel, lying perpendicular to the main body of the church.

EXTERIOR: built of red brick in English bond with a Swithland slate roof, the chapel is aligned north-west to south-east and comprises eleven bays, eight forming the nave and three the chancel. Both the first and eighth bay on each side accommodates a porch and entrances, perpendicular to the main body of the chapel. Each of the principal entrances (at the northern end of the chapel) comprise tapering and open porches leading towards a wide segmental-arched door opening with a pair of heavy plank and batten doors and elongated strap hinges.

Along the side elevations, sweeping, curved and stepped buttresses, with tumbled brick detailing below blue-brick coping, separate the bays. Each bay (barring those accommodating entrances) is marked by a pair of tall, narrow, segmental-arched, leaded windows at clerestory level. Smaller, but similarly detailed windows, sit below at ground-floor level in the wall of the aisle, but these were boarded at the time of the site visit (2016). The northern gable rises between the flanking entrances with a tripartite window of tall, narrow, segmental-arched, leaded-lights separated by brick mullions. A wheeled-cross finial sits at the apex. Bands of light-coloured stone add detailing to the brick elevation. The south-east gable has a similar arrangement of windows but here they include decorative stained glass and brick segmental arches.

On the west elevation, a bell tower stands between the southern entrance porch and the vestry (again aligned perpendicular to the main chapel building). The brick tower with stone banding supports a timber bellcote with the pulley mechanism and bell still in-situ. The sweeping, lead-coated roof with overhanging eves, both protects the bell and supports a wrought-iron weather vein.

INTERIOR: the principal entrance on the north-east corner of the chapel leads into a vestibule with coat hooks along the back wall, and a pair of tall, narrow, leaded windows with interlocking segmental-arched heads in the eastern wall. The leaded windows are simple in design, randomly arranged with clear and olive green lights, a pattern replicated elsewhere. A low, glazed-tiled recess provides a backdrop to a cast-iron radiator, and is clearly a motif of the overall design, which is replicated throughout the chapel. At the western end of the vestibule, a door of similar design and proportions to the principal entrance leads through to the chapel. Inside, the single space appears tunnel-like with the barrel vaulted ceiling subtly divided into the building’s 11 bays by moulded plaster arches extending down the wall to the base of the clerestory. Beneath the clerestory, arcades run the length of the nave on both sides. The walls are plastered throughout providing a sharp contrast to the brick surrounds of the arcades and the brick arch which marks the transition from nave to chancel. The arcades are formed of stone plinths supporting brick piers upon which moulded stone springers provide the base for elliptical, segmental brick-arches to rise. Above each arch, within the clerestory, a pair of windows is recessed into a tapering opening. Beneath each arch, set back and on the external wall of the aisles, is an arched recess the top half of which contains a smaller version of the windows above, with the lower half being lined with glazed tiles as a backdrop to cast-iron radiators. The radiators remain in situ throughout.

A blind arcade is applied to the northern gable wall giving the impression of continuity around the three walls of the nave. The chancel was inaccessible at the time of the site visit but appears to replicate the decorative detailing of the nave. Photographic evidence suggests there is a full-height arch leading off the chancel on the north-eastern side, which presumably leads to the single-story porch, which is evident externally.

Parquet flooring survives throughout the nave and probably the chancel, although the latter could not be confirmed. Although historic photographs show the original light fittings have been replaced, it appears the chapel was designed to have electric lighting and the original brass light switches survive.

History

Carlton Hayes Hospital was built as the Leicestershire and Rutland Lunatic Asylum in 1904 and remained in use until 1995. The complex was built to the designs of S P Pick, a renowned Leicestershire Architect of the Arts and Crafts movement. The Hospital complex was demolished in 1996 and the site redeveloped by the Alliance and Leicester Building Society for their new headquarters. The chapel is the only surviving element of the complex. Philip Larkin’s mother was a patient in the hospital in 1956; he described it as ‘large and dingy as a London terminus’.

In 1884 Samuel Perkins Pick was an architectural apprentice of John Bredson Everard of Leicester and assistant teacher at the Leicester School of Art. In 1888 he entered into partnership with Everard and was joined in 1911 by William Keay to form the partnership of Pick Everard and Keay, Architects and Civil Engineers. Shorty after Pick’s death the practice merged with Goddard and Gimson to form the practice of Pick, Everard, Keay and Gimson (now Pick Everard). Over a 30-year period Pick was responsible for a significant number of important buildings in Leicester and beyond, many of which are recognised through their listed status; the former National Westminster Bank (Grade II*); Magistrates Court and Police Station Superintendents House Lutterworth (Grade II); and the county Lunatic Asylum now the Fielding Johnson Building at Leicester University (Grade II). Further afield Pick was involved in the design of the Midlands Agriculture and Dairy College, Kingston-on-Soar, The New Royal Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester and major extensions to Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge.

Reasons for Listing

Former Carlton Hayes Hospital chapel built 1904-1907 by S P Pick is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a well-executed example of the work of Samuel Perkins Pick, an architect of considerable repute with several listed buildings to his name;
* the simple architectural form is executed to a very high standard with a subtlety to the detailing which enhances the quality of the composition;
* the building, including its external bell and timber bellcote and internal fixtures, fittings and subtle arts and crafts embellishments, has survived virtually intact;

Historic interest:

* as a well-preserved and architecturally-distinguished example of an early C20 asylum chapel which, although it has lost its associated hospital landscape context, represents the only remaining architectural expression of the social history of this site.

External Links

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.