British Listed Buildings

Listing Text

CAMDEN

TQ2685NW NEW END
798-1/26/1194 Circular ward & attached ablution &
17/10/86 water-tank tower at former New End
Hospital
(Formerly Listed as:
HEATH STREET
Circular ward at New End Hospital)

GV II*

Hospital ward with attached ablution and water tank tower.
1884. By Charles Bell. Converted into residential use 1996-98,
John Thomson Associates, architects. Pale yellow/grey bricks
with pink brick bands and dressings. Slated roofs; pyramidal
with finial and bargeboarded lucarnes to tower and conical to
ward with gabled dormers and central octagonal brick
chimney/ventilation shaft.
PLAN: circular plan ward tower with rectangular tank tower to
south-west and short rectangular wing to north-east containing
stairs and former kitchen.
Ward tower of 3 storeys, attic storey and semi-basement. Pink
brick segmental arches to recessed sashes; paired to attic
gables. South side with cast-iron cantilevered "airing
galleries" to upper floors gained from segmental-arched
doorways with overlights and part-glazed doors. Parapet.
INTERIORS: of 50' (15.2m) diameter and functional but attic
ward with central octagonal cast-iron arcaded feature relating
to chimney/ventilation shaft.
Water and ablution tower of 3 storeys, attic storey and
semi-basement plus cast-iron tank. 2 windows to each
elevation. Clasping pilasters and central pilaster on each
elevation rise full height of tower to support pink brick
round-arches each containing an oculus at attic level. Narrow
sashes to each floor with pink brick continuous sill and head
bands. Cast-iron water tank with enriched panels on a moulded
corbelled base, each corbel with a projecting cast-iron
bracket.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the ward was the first free-standing example
of the circular "ward tower" in the country. The idea for
circular wards came from a paper given by John Marshall FRS,
Professor of Surgery at University College & Hospital, &
Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Academy and which was
reported by Godwin in the Builder, 1878. The design gave
improved air, light and ventilation with the advantage of only
needing a small site. The circular ward and water tower form a
group with New End Hospital former Workhouse Block (qv), the




Boilerhouse chimney (qv) and the Infirmary Block (qv). They
have considerable townscape value, and are a local landmark.
(The Builder: 2 February 1884; Marshall J: On a Circular
System of Hospital Wards with comments by PG Smith: -1878;
Medical History: Taylor J: Circular Hospital Wards :32: -1988:
426-435).







Listing NGR: TQ2640785961

Source: English Heritage

Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.