Big Day for some local Gate Pillars
4th March 2021 was a big day for some local 90 year old gate pillars as the main entrance to Rampton Hospital gains Listed Building status. The gate piers at Rampton Hospital have stood since being built in 1931 and Historic England and English Heritage have now recognised them for their special architectural or historic interest.
4th March 2021 was a big day for some local 90 year old gate pillars as the main entrance to Rampton Hospital gains Listed Building status.
The gate piers at Rampton Hospital have stood since being built in 1931 and Historic England and English Heritage have now recognised them for their special architectural or historic interest.
In 1907 Woodbeck Farm was purchased by the Government with the intention of establishing a Criminal Lunatic Asylum, as an overflow facility to Broadmoor Asylum in Berkshire. A scheme for the hospital was produced by Scottish architect Francis William Troup, who specialised in Arts & Crafts design but is also associated with several neo-classical buildings including parts of the Bank of England. The main hospital building, constructed of Lincoln red brick and Welsh slate, had a distinctive pavilion plan set behind a 15ft high boundary wall. The main entrance was originally along what is now Dendy Drive (then called Main Avenue). The Rampton Criminal Lunatic Asylum opened in 1912 and by the end of the year there were 128 patients.
After the First World War in March 1920, the site was renamed as Rampton State Institute for Mental Defectives, under the control of the Central Government Board of Control. All new buildings now became the responsibility of the Office of Works and in May 1920 they prepared plans for a large scheme of expansion, led by their architect John Hatton Markham.
Markham was born in 1882 and died in retirement in May 1961.
Markham’s scheme for Rampton included a grander entrance to reflect the importance of the site, and the gate piers flanking the new principal entrance were built in 1931. In line with the other new buildings on the site, the gate piers were designed in a neo-classical style, common to the designs produced by the Office of Works during this period. They are very similar to Markham's Victoria Gate piers at Hyde Park in London which he reconstructed in the 1920s. The dwarf walls on the outer side of each gate pier were added at a later date and were not part of the original design.
From an architectural point of view, each pier are of a tall square shaft design, comprising a stone plinth with brick shaft laid in English bond with stone capping featuring moulded cornice and stepped upper section and carved ornament on top, this being a decorative 4-handled urn with pineapple in the centre. Adjacent to each pier is a pair of stone ashlar plinths either side of a footpath.
They were designed to provide a grand entrance to the hospital, they have a striking presence on Retford Road, rising impressively above the surrounding buildings and they are distinguished by their scale and inherent design quality, their exact proportions and classical detailing imparting an air of grandeur.
The piers have a strong group value with the many non-designated heritage assets on the hospital site.
They are now, as of March 2021, listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.