Building record 1796/1/9 - The Old Laundry, St Crispins Hospital

{1} A large new laundry building was constructed in 1906 to replace a smaller unit located within the main hospital block. In turn, when a replacement laundry was built in the 1970's this 1906 building became known as the Old Laundry. The ground floor plan of this building published by Shaw Crammond showing the proposed conversion to a workshop in 1978 and the original roof plan of 1905 differ from the surviving historic fabric. In the case of the roof plan, it was noted that the central bay of the main building was smaller than originally planned, although whether this was due to a change in design or by mistake, is not clear. There are several phases of construction within the building, some of which post-date the 1978 plan, which show that the conversion to workshops did involve structural alterations.
The Old Laundry building was a single storey construction with a unique mutli-faceted plan, but a layout which was essentially three north-south bays and one east-west at the southern end, very similar in basic form to the workshops of the main asylum block. A series of projections were on the west and east sides, of uncertain function. It was built in the same engineering brick chamfer and foundation courses. Window and door heads were ornamented with the use of flat buff bricks and sandstone keystones, window sills were of sandstone. The slate roof was of a single pitch, with leaded ridges and higher central lanterns along the three main north-south bays.

<1> Thorne A.; Foard A.; Lean S., 2003, Historic Buildings Recording of St Crispins Hospital, Upton, Northamptonshire, 2002, p.76 (checked) (Report). SNN103454.

<2> Thorne L.; Lean S.; Harding J., 2003, Historic Buildings Recording of St Crispins Hospital, Upton, Northamptonshire (Illustrations), Fig. 26 (checked) (Report). SNN103455.

Record last edited

Apr 24 2008 1:04PM