Listed building or place reference: SA0050

Historic site reference
Property: St. Saviours Hospital
Road name: La Route de la Hougue Bie
Parish: St. Saviour
Location: View on map
Grade: Listed Building Grade 1
Category: Health / welfare building
Statement of significance: High quality example of Victorian hospital (asylum) buildings, 1868 with later additions, set within rare Victorian asylum therapeutic grounds whose design follows the advice of the UK Commissioners in Lunacy published originally in 1856. The typically sweeping open front lawn survives largely intact to form the essential setting enclosed by a notable line of holm oak to the north and mixed oak and sweet chestnut alongside the drive, but the eastern end of the lawn is damaged by the nurses' home. The airing courts to the rear, which define the site as an asylum, are a rare survival as an ensemble, particularly those to the east which retain many rare original features, including the walls, privies, lean-to shelter and paths. This is an unusual use of walls to enclose airing courts, as in most asylums of this period in the UK walls were usually avoided and ha-has used instead. In the few asylums in the UK that survive the airing court boundaries of whatever type usually no longer survive. Although alterations and additions have occurred in the courts these are not irreversible and could be removed to reinstate the courts as therapeutic garden enclosures. Of the trees, the northern boundary line of holm oak and the avenue of large sweet chestnut and deciduous oak to the west provide strong definition to the layout. The rural setting and views are of particular significance but have in places been damaged by intrusive C20 hospital-related development, particularly to the west and north-west. The site is of high significance in Jersey as a complex institutional grounds that survives relatively intact, and would be of national significance in England.
Context: n/a
External Description: The layout of the site and design of the buildings - both externally and internally - is illustrative of 19th century asylum architecture and reflects the social and scientific attitudes towards the mentally ill at that time. The location fitted with the aim to build asylums in a rural setting with scenic outlooks and near to a good supply of fresh water. The different elements of the site reflect the intention to provide patients with moral therapy and therapeutic employment as well as a secure environment. There are extensive mid-C19 asylum grounds with an open lawn to the front (north) of the main linear building, and a series of walled airing courts attached to the rear (south). The originally entirely rural site is bounded by a bank against the road which is sunk in a deep cutting to the north, with a belt of largely holm oak above. To the west of the site is a development of modern hospital houses on former hospital farmland, to the south-west the farm hospital, to the south modern buildings and lawns beyond leading to the recent reservoir, and to the east an informal boundary with the wooded environs of the reservoir. A modern nurses' home lies north-east of the main building on the former east end of the lawn. The site occupies a plateau which slopes to the south beyond the main building, affording views from the upper storeys of the building to the countryside to the north and south. The site is entered at the north-west corner of the site via a gateway flanked by muscular C19 granite piers. From here a straight drive runs south alongside the lawn flanked by an avenue of mature oak and sweet chestnuts. The drive turns east to run along the north front of the building to a central porte cochere and the main entrance. The doorway overlooks the large, open playing field/lawn which is enclosed by the avenue to the west and the northern holm oak belt above the road. Important views extend beyond to the fields to the north, now partly blocked by a modern hospital block to the north-west, and formerly to the west, now the site of the hospital housing. The main building range is a large 2-storey complex. The walls of the building are of shale rubble with granite quoins, strings, window dressing and plinths. The quoins and other stone dressings are rock faced with flat margins. The roofs are of Welsh slate. The overall arrangement is symmetrical although the east wing is longer, and terminates in an east facing building, which has a segmented bay window and is 3-storey due to the fall in levels at this point. The whole composition is tied together by a projecting moulded eaves cornice that runs along the whole frontage and a continuous render band directly beneath the eaves. The linear form to the layout was popular as it allowed light in and provided cross ventilation. The principal elevation is to the north. The main building is divided into two identical halves to west and east, originally for male and female patients respectively, flanking a dominant central administration and service block incorporating a chapel, dining hall and kitchens. The entrance building has a projecting granite porte-cochere, above which is the former chapel with semi-circular headed windows, and above that a triangular gable pediment with bull's eye window. This building extends to the rear and incorporates the dining hall and kitchens. Wings spread out to the east and west, articulated by projecting pedimented sections of 2 bays, with 2-storey flat roofed ablution blocks sitting in front of the main façade. The east wing originally housed female residents and the west wing male residents. The windows in the entrance block including the arched windows to the former chapel and dining hall are either large pane or standard pane timber sashes. The majority of other windows are small pane timber sashes with the upper section pivoted and lower section fixed. These windows may be later replacements but their design is illustrative of the need for security and safety of the patients. The quality of the architectural composition of the hospital range continues to the rear elevation. Dominant features are the projecting 2-storey day rooms, each of which has two segmented bay windows - one facing over the walled garden and the other looking south. There are also interesting 2-storied projections treated in the form of a Dutch gable with corbelled chimneys - the open base of each has now been enclosed. Projecting back from the centre of the building is the dining hall with large round-headed windows and bulls-eye glazing, and the kitchen with the former laundry / workshop. Some of the rear walls have been rendered. The post-1945 structures - such as the 1970s lift shafts and hospital fittings - are not of interest. To the rear (south) of the building a line of 6 airing courts gives access for patients from doorways in the ground and first floors, from ward-specific airing courts, for therapeutic recreation and exercise. The courts are partly enclosed by the building and by granite rubble walls of c.2.5-3m high. At the southern corners of the eastern row of courts are two privy blocks, each of which straddles the boundary line in order to serve two courts, with doors on the west and east elevations. It is likely that two more served the western courts but these have been lost to the modern buildings of Orchard House unit. The granite rubble privies are unusually large structures, with dressed granite doorways, flanked by terracotta tile-louvred ventilation openings in arrow loop style. The hipped slate roofs originally had louvred cupolas (one of which survives) and retain fretwork pelmets below the gutters. An open-sided slate mono-pitch roofed shelter runs along the eastern wall of the central court (eastern half), partly enclosed in the C20, but retaining an open section supported by chamfered timber posts with an original low timber bench. The walls of the court at the east end of the building are reduced to 1m height. Within the courts lawns are enclosed by paths, probably relating to the original layout. The courts contain various later structures and enclosures which are not significant and damage the open nature and ornamental character. A range of low service buildings bounds the south side of part of the eastern courts, now estate workshops and probably originating as workshops for the male patients. At the west end of the main building a small detached block, in similar ornamental style to the privies, is apparently the former mortuary. It has a glazed lantern above the hipped roof, and iron gutters with lion masks in similar pattern to the main building. It is entered from the main drive to the north. To the south-west is the asylum farmstead, including a 19th century cow stable and shed - rubble granite with brick dressing and slate roofs - around a yard (modern house not of interest); and a larger 1930s stable - of rubble granite with ashlar granite quoins and dressings to openings - to the north-west.
Internal Description: The interior largely retains its original layout and utilitarian character with simple detailing and fittings. Accommodation was primarily in the form of single rooms or 'side rooms' on the north side of the building with a few open plan dormitories (sub-divided with stud walls in the 1990s), and day rooms at the end of each corridor. Of note is the pair of 1868 staircases (a separate staircase for men and women), the vaulted roof in the former chapel, and the rounded-edge applied to all openings and corners.
Special interest: Architectural,Historical

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11/01/2016

Schedule Schedule Listed Building Grade 1

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