Building record 0940400000 - Buckingham Hospital

Buckingham Hospital (formerly Buckingham Hospital and Nursing Home) (B1-2).
Buckingham Hospital given to the town in 1886 by J G Hubbard, later Lord Addington. Privately financed until 1948 when it became part of the National Health Service. Threatened with closure from 1966 to 1977 due to small size, but local contributions raised to provide staff wages and to expand facilities in 1970s and 1980s, kept hospital open (B3).
'Nursing Home' first shown on 2nd Edition 25-inch OS map, shown as 'Buckingham Hospital' on 25-inch and 6-inch OS maps from 1930s onwards. Buildings extended in late 1980s or early 1990s (B4).
NGR to original hospital building.
Buildings report dated July 1992 held at NMR (B5).
The entrance to Buckingham Hospital is situated on the north-western side of the former Cattle Market between nos. 19 and 21, High Street. The entrance is marked by attractive curved metal railings atop a low brick boundary wall and metal gates. Situated on raised ground, the main hospital building is largely obscured from view from the High Street, being tucked away in the western corner of the site to the rear of 21 to 23, High Street and Toombs Yard. The building itself is worthy of note, being built in 1886 to a design by John Oldrid Scott, the son of Sir George Gilbert Scott. It is a substantial and handsome building constructed with vitrified bricks laid in a header bond with red bricks used to emphasise architectural detailing. The principal elevation is symmetrical with a central bay and two shallow gable wings to each end of the façade. The central doorway is approached by a flight of stone steps, has a stone surround and pediment above. Articulating each floor of the gable wings are canted sash bay windows. The roof is tiled and punctuating the ridgeline are elegant banded brick and stone ridge stacks. The hospital has been greatly extended in more recent years with a substantial addition to the rear and the erection of a number of buildings within the grounds. None of these additions contribute to the character or setting of the Victorian building or the Conservation Area.
The 1971 Conservation Area designation ran the boundary through the hospital site. This has been revised so that the boundary incorporates the whole of the hospital grounds and follows the line of the important historic random coursed stone and brick wall that runs around the hospital's north-eastern and north-western boundaries. Part of this wall was built originally to enclose the Buckingham Union Workhouse which was erected in the late 1830’s to a design by G. G. Scott. The workhouse was demolished in the 1960’s. A local building of note within the Conservation Area of Buckingham (B6).