St Mary's Hospital

Detached twelve-bay single-storey hospital building, built c.1950, comprising mortuary chapel to east and offices to west end. Flat lead-covered roof with projecting eaves, red brick chimneystack, rooflight and cast-iron downpipes. Red brick walls laid in Flemish bond with rendered north elevation. Square-headed window openings with concrete lintels and sills and timber casement windows. Some replacement uPVC windows. Square-headed door openings with concrete lintels and timber doors. Double-leaf doors with timber crosses to overlights to mortuary chapel. Located towards the eastern flank of the complex.

St Mary’s Hospital was originally conceived as a fever hospital and though designs were drawn up in 1938 by TJ Cullen, with assistance from JF McMullen Jr., the complex was not completed until 1952. Occupying an elevated site on what was then the edge of the city, the complex is indicative of contemporary hospital architecture, taking the form of a group of low-level buildings in a large open space. The use of recessed and projecting elements to the facades serves to enliven an otherwise functionally driven design, while the use of red brick adds colour. The hospital’s significance in the city was cemented during the polio epidemic of 1956, which is commemorated in a recently unveiled memorial plaque in the grounds. The complex continues to serve as a hospital.