Victorian Asylum (St Saviour's Hospital - originally known as Jersey Lunatic Asylum). Designed by local architect Thomas Gallichan (also responsible for the General Hospital, Royal Court House, Le Sueur Obelisk and Masonic Temple). The foundation stone was laid 29 July 1865, and the hospital opened 11 July 1868. Separate mortuary building and laundry added 1882. The wings were extended in 1891 and the east wing further extended, and ablution blocks added to the north side, circa 1903 - all in a style that matches the original building. The layout of the site and design of the buildings - both externally and internally - is illustrative of 19th century / early 20th 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. The hospital is a large 2-storey complex which stands in extensive grounds with a grand lawned area to the front, entered through a dressed granite gateway. 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 building was designed with separate male and female wings 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. Detached from the western end of the range is the former mortuary - a small single-storey building with hipped slated roof, timber lantern and lion mask decoration on the gutters. There are small shelter buildings of a similar scale in the walled gardens or 'airing courts' at the rear of the hospital. 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 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. The post-1945 structures - such as the 1970s lift shafts and hospital fittings - are not of interest. |