Building record 1160/358/4 - Nurses home, Northampton General Hospital

Nurse's Home for Northampton General Hospital built in 1938-39 to designs by Sir John Brown and A. E. Henson. The nurse's home is built of brick and is approximately rectangular in plan, divided into two unequal parts by a semi-circular projection. It is of four storeys with a basement and parapet. The home has 118 single bedrooms and on each floor there was a shampoo-room, ironing- room and small kitchen. The ground floor comprised of a recreation room, a writing room, a sitting room for staff nurses, and a waiting room for visitors, and classrooms. The main demonstration room was designed to be converted, in an emergency, into an extra operating theatre and a large cloakroom was designed to convert into a room for the treatment of gas casualties. The original bedrooms on the second and third floors are still in use. Many of the original doors and windows have been replaced. The nurse’s home was assessed for designation in 2011 but failed to meet the required criteria.

{1} The Nurses Home comprises a four storey and basement building of brick with flat roof. Two unequal length main wings, that to south with curved plan. The wings meet off-centre with a full height semi-circular projecting main stair wing with ground floor porch, projecting west. The overall building is aligned approximately north to south. Single storey (with basement?) rectangular rooms extend north and east at the building’s north end. Rectangular windows to all floors with some circular windows towards ends of the main wings and on the south side of the stair wing. All windows are metal framed. Turquoise coloured decorative tiling separates the windows on the north elevation of the stair wing and as well as being incorporated within the windows in the main ranges.
The exterior appears to have retained without major change. Interior of building not seen but is understood to still operate as a nurses home but with office use of the basement and/or ground floor.

{3} Opened on 19th October 1939. 118 single bedrooms for nurses, equipped with hot and cold water fixtures in each
room, heated towel rails and radiators, and roomy built-in wardrobes. On each floor the nurses have a shampoo-room, an ironing-room and a small kitchen for making tea. Also on each floor there are entrances to chutes to carry away rubbish on one hand and soiled linen on the other; the dust chute terminates in the basement over a large bin, and the laundry chute in the linen room on the first floor. The building has a flat roof which commands a wonderful view of the country for miles around. On the ground floor, there is a particularly fine recreation room, writing-room, small separate sitting-room for staff nurses, a waiting room for visitors and classrooms. The classrooms are designed with a view to other possible uses. In an emergency the main demonstration room can be converted into an extra operating theatre, and a large cloak room on the same floor has been designed for easy conversion into a room for the treatment of gas casualties, and has points for the attachment of an oxygen supply.

{7} Nurses Home, 1939, by Sir John Brown and A E Henson. The General Hospital was an early purpose built hospital building. The main interest however, are the 1930s additions The Nurses Home is altogether more robust with a long four story slab block in buff brick, curving at its southern end, and a central semi-circular stair tower. The massing and composition are assured, and the building retains good original features including the staircase and entrance porch.

{8} Nurses’ Home at Northampton General Hospital, built in 1939 to the designs of Sir John Brown and A. E. Henson and Partners of London.

Northampton General Hospital was built in 1790-1793 to designs by Samuel Saxon and was extended in 1872. An outpatients’ department was built in 1878, and a separate hospital block was built in 1902-1904, the original hospital subsequently being used for administration and as a nurses’ home. The Barratt Maternity Home was added in 1935-1936 and a nurses’ home in 1938-1939. A detached home had first been considered in 1901 but it was not until 1938 that a tender of £43,832 was accepted for a design by Sir John Brown and A. E. Henson (‘The Builder’, 3 June 1938, 1119). The architects were later responsible for the Civic Centre, Haringey (1955-58), and Hinckley Urban District Council Offices (1963-67). They have no buildings attributed to them on the statutory List.

The Nurses’ Home was opened on 19th October 1939 by HRH the Duchess of Gloucester. In ‘The British Journal of Nursing’ (November 1939) it was described as having 118 single bedrooms with built-in wardrobes, hot and cold water fixtures, heated towel rails and radiators. On each floor there was a shampoo-room, ironing-room, a small kitchen for making tea, and chutes for disposing of rubbish and soiled linen. The ground floor comprised of a recreation room, a writing room, a small separate sitting room for staff nurses, a waiting room for visitors, and classrooms. Given the expectation of war, the main demonstration room was designed to be converted, in an emergency, into an extra operating theatre; and a large cloakroom on the same floor was designed for easy conversion into a room for the treatment of gas casualties, and it had points for the attachment of an oxygen supply. There is no evidence that any of these fittings have survived.

The Nurses’ Home has been subject to alterations since it was first built. Fire screens have been inserted to separate the corridors from the stairwell; partition walls have been built in the reception area and former dining room; and the former cloakrooms/ locker rooms on the ground floor have been replaced with lavatory facilities. Externally, the parapet was rebuilt in the mid-1980s; the front entrance door has been replaced; and in 2010 all the original metal-framed windows were replaced with uPVC windows. The second and third floors are still used for nurses’ accommodation but the first floor has been converted for office use, and the ground floor is used for general training.

MATERIALS: buff brick.

PLAN: long, approximately rectangular plan, divided into two unequal parts by a semi-circular projection with a flat concrete canopy all round at ground floor level that contains the main entrance and main staircase.

EXTERIOR: the Nurses’ Home is a large, four-storey building with a basement and parapet, under a flat roof which serves as a viewing platform. On the right-hand side of the entrance is a series of concrete panels inscribed with the names of local Northampton places. The ground floor, which has horizontally banded brickwork on the north wing, is lit by four-light windows, all with banded brickwork in between, and a heavy concrete lintel. On the other three floors of the north wing there is, from the left, a round window followed by five pairs of casement windows, each pair having a continuous concrete sill and lintel, and green glazed tiles in between. The central circular projection is flanked by smaller casements. The south wing, which is slightly concave, has the same fenestration as the north except that the piers between the windows have horizontally banded brickwork and the final windows on the end are rectangular. All of the original metal-cased windows have recently been replaced with uPVC casements. On the rear elevation the fenestration is similar except it has large windows on the ground floor.

INTERIOR: the plan of the ground floor has been altered with the insertion of walls to create additional rooms, and the first floor has been converted to office use. The original bedrooms on the second and third floors are still in use; the one that was inspected retains its fitted cupboard. The door surrounds survive on these floors but the majority of the doors throughout the building have been replaced, including the main entrance door. The staircase, which is intact, has concrete steps, and a balustrade consisting of two horizontal metal bands with intermittent vertical posts, and a continuous timber handrail.

<1> Cadman, G., 2010, Northampton General Hospital, Nurses Home, (checked) (Note). SNN107161.

<2> Cadman, G., 2010, Northampton General Hospital Nurses Home, (checked) (Photographic prints (COL)). SNN107162.

<3> 1939, The British Journal of Nursing, (checked) (Extract). SNN107163.

<4> Featherstone Austin Woodward Architects, 2010, Northampton General Hospital Nurses Home, plans and elevations as existing, (checked) (Drawing). SNN107164.

<5> Pevsner N.; Cherry B., 1973, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, p.347 (unchecked) (Series). SNN1320.

<6> Waddy F.F., 1974, A History of Northampton General Hospital 1743 to 1948, (unchecked) (Book). SNN104767.

<7> Duerden P., 2005, An Architect's Vision of Northampton, (unchecked) (Website). SNN107325.

<8> ENGISH HERITAGE, English Heritage Listing File, Designation Adviser, September 2011, no list case (Report). SNN111579.

Record last edited

Feb 5 2025 6:16PM