Oldham Workhouse: Additions

OLDHAM - An addition to the Oldham Workhouse has been opened. The new buildings comprise three blocks consisting of two pavilion wards and an administrative building in the centre. Each pavilion is two stories high and contains in each story a ward 84 feet by 24 feet, with a total accommodation in all the buildings of 150 beds. There is also a day‑room to each ward 24 feet by 24 feet, a scullery, bath, and nurses' rooms. The warming and ventilating have been intrusted to Messrs Shillito and Shorland, of Manchester, who have very successfully carried out their arrangement by means of their patent Manchester open fire-grates, which pass volumes of pure warm air into the wards, and Shorland’s patent vertical pipes, which supply an unlimited amount of cold air without draught ; the combined arrangement being that the air of the wards is regulated to any desired temperature. The walls are faced with dressed bricks inside, painted and distempered in pleasing colours, having a dado 4 feet high round the rooms. The cost of the buildings will be about £12,000, and the general contractor is Mr. E Whitaker, of Oldham. The whole of the work has been erected from the designs and under the superintendence of Mr Edward Potts, architect, Oldham. [Building News 18 July 1879 page 80].

Reference    British Architect 11 July 1879. Page 21
Reference    Building News 18 July 1879 page 80