Survey Data
Reg No
15601010
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
Hospital/infirmary
Date
1935 - 1940
Coordinates
315031, 159449
Date Recorded
07/06/2005
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached five-bay (six-bay deep) two-storey hospital, built 1936, on a neo-Palladian plan centred on single-bay two-storey pedimented breakfront with five-bay single-storey wings on cranked plans terminating in four-bay single-storey "pavilions"; five-bay two-storey rear (north) elevation. Closed, 1986. Renovated, 2002; 2005, to accommodate alternative use. Hipped slate roof on a quadrangular plan centred on pitched (gabled) slate roof (breakfront); pitched slate roofs (wings) with hipped slate roofs ("pavilions"), clay ridge tiles, slightly sproketed eaves, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods on timber eaves boards on slightly overhanging timber boarded box eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Red brick English bond walls on red brick header bond chamfered cushion course on red brick English bond plinth; granite ashlar surface finish (frontispiece) on cut-granite chamfered plinth with rusticated cut-granite piers to ends centred on rusticated cut-granite piers (breakfront) supporting "Cyma Recta" or "Cyma Reversa" open bed pediment. Square-headed central door opening approached by flight of three cut-granite steps with granite ashlar voussoirs centred on panelled keystone framing timber panelled double doors having overlight. Square-headed window opening in square-headed recess (first floor) with cut-granite sill, and cut-granite monolithic surround framing replacement uPVC casement window. Square-headed flanking window openings with cut-granite sills, and granite ashlar voussoirs framing replacement uPVC casement windows. Square-headed window openings (remainder) with cut-granite sills, and red brick voussoirs framing replacement uPVC casement windows. Set back from street in landscaped grounds with rendered piers to perimeter on rendered chamfered plinths having concrete capping supporting wrought iron-detailed double gates.
Appraisal
A hospital erected for the Wexford County Board of Health to a design (1936) by James William O'Sullivan (c.1884-1972) of Grafton Street, Dublin, representing an important component of the mid twentieth-century built heritage of Gorey with the architectural value of the composition, one recalling the contemporary New Ross District Hospital (1936; see 15605---), confirmed by such attributes as the neo-Palladian plan form centred on a Classically-detailed frontispiece; the construction in red brick offset by silver-grey granite dressings not only demonstrating good quality workmanship, but also producing a pleasing two-tone palette; the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression; and the slightly oversailing roofline. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior: however, the recent (2002) introduction of replacement fittings to most of the openings has not had a beneficial impact on the character or integrity of a hospital making a pleasing visual statement in McCurtain Street.