Victoria Hospital, Briercliffe Road, Burnley

The Victoria Hospital, Burnley, was opened on the 13th inst. by Prince Albert Victor. The building is one of special interest, inasmuch as the wards are circular on plan. We will give a description of it in a future number. [Builder 23 October 1886 page 612]

THE VICTORIA HOSPITAL, BURNLEY: CIRCULAR WARDS - This hospital, opened the other day by H.R.H. Prince Albert Victor, as mentioned in our last, is of special interest on account of its circular wards. The following description of the building appeared in the Burnley Express: — "The site, which is to the south of Briercliffe road, surrounded by broad streets, is of an area sufficient to allow of the erection of complete administrative department, out-patients’ department, six ward blocks of equal area, and a smaller block intended to be used as a children’s ward. The administrative block occupies the centre of the site. The front portion of the central block contains on the ground floor secretary’s room, house-surgeon’s sitting room and bedroom, matron’s sitting-room, nurses’ dining room, linen-room, matron’s store-room, and the operating-room. On the first floor are matron’s bedroom, twelve nurses’ rooms, bathroom, etc.; and the second floor has four dormitories for servants. Connected with the block by means of a ventilating corridor are buildings of one story, comprising kitchen, scullery, pantry, washhouse, laundry, drying-closet, etc. There is a basement story almost throughout, with rooms for patients’ clothing, store-rooms, larder, dairy, heating-chambers, storage fur coals, etc., with a central communication to the upper rooms by means of a double lift. Spacious corridors connect the administrative and ward blocks. These corridors are glazed throughout, and it is possible to remove portions of the frames entirely in the summer mouths. The main wards are circular in plan, having an internal diameter of 60 feet, and accommodating twenty patients each. Overlooking each ward is a nurse’s room and a scullery, and to the rear of these apartments are two separation wards for single patients. The bathroom, closets, lavatories, etc., are detached by cross-ventilated corridors. The general principle of the circular ward has so far been adopted in but two or three instances, the most notable being that of the Civil Hospital at Antwerp. None of these buildings have as yet been opened, and the actual results of the working of these institutions are looked for with the keenest interest. It is confidently expected that many of the difficulties and dangers arising from the known defects in even the later types of hospital construction will be avoided, that more perfect sanitary conditions will be attainable, along with more cheery surroundings for both patients and nurses. Those who have given most study to the subject are able to predict with tolerable certainty that there will be great improvements as regards the aeration of the several blocks, the softening of the internal draughts, and the maintenance of an equable temperature and the facilities for the regular admission of fresh air and the extraction of foul, the free admission of sunshine, and along with this a comparative greater floor space and cubic area for each patient. In these wards, however, certain novelties of arrangement and construction, based upon the suggestions of Professor Marshall and others, will find their first expression in actual building. Of these features the sunrooms are probably the most important. They are designed on the roof of each ward, being approached by a spiral staircase of easy gradient, constructed in the centre of each block. They are glazed all round, and outside the sun-room is a promenade some 12 feet wide, making a circuit of the block. Though roof of the ward is formed in wrought iron and concrete, with surface of rock asphalt. The wards, bathrooms, closets, etc., are lined with glazed bricks, the joints being carefully made tight in Keene’s cement. This material has been selected as offering the most impervious surface, and the ward floors for like reason are laid in Austrian oak, waxed, and polished. The windows of the wards are glazed with British plate glass and are hung at the level of the impost. In the centre of each ward is a smoke-fine, jacketed with outer extraction flue. Access is gained to the soot-chambers at the foot of this flue by a subway running under the corridors. The subway contains all pipes for hot and cold water, steam, gas, Ac., which are placed in a manner admitting of easy inspection. Facilities are afforded for cleaning out soot-flues, fresh-air trunks, Ac., and the examination of sanitary fittings, without entering the wards. Calorifiers are placed in convenient positions in these corridors, heated by coils, from which circulation-pipes are carried to baths and lavatories. Lifts and shoots are provided from the wards, so that coal, ashes, foul linen, Ac., can be carried underground. The wards are heated by Snell’s thermhydric stoves, by means of which warmed fresh air is introduced. This arrangement is supplemented by a method of steam heating. Radiators are placed in the small wards and corridors. Fresh air is admitted at two heights in the outer walls by Ellison’s air-diffusers and Sheringham’s ventilators, under control, as well as near the centre through the stoves, and the extraction takes place from the coiling level next the staircase, trunks being connected with the central extraction flue. The ceiling is coved at the wall line and rises towards the centre to render the extraction appliances more effectual. The administrative block is heated in the main by open fireplaces and is ventilated by means of Boyle’s air-pump ventilators, one of considerable power being situated in the turret which surmounts the central block. The whole of the staircases is in stone. Having due regard to the soundness of the construction, the internal details throughout are of the simplest possible character, though in every particular ample provision is made for the efficient and economical working of the institution. The out-patients’ department (consisting of dispensary, surgeon’s room, ophthalmic room, and drug store) is situated to the rear of the western block to the north of the corridor, the corresponding portion on the east being reserved for the children’s ward. The entrance lodge and mortuary are arranged to the street line on the north side, the former building being in two stories. All the buildings are substantially erected in stone, upon a bed of concrete covering the entire building site, and to a distance of 3 feet beyond the walls. The works have been mainly carried out by local builders, namely, masonry, Messrs. Smith A Kippax; joinery, Mr. R. Brown; slating, Mr. Wm. Stanworth; plastering, Mr. J. Shuttleworth; painting, Mr. Wm. Aspinall; steam heating, Messrs. Thomas Birtwistle and Company. The plumbing work has been executed by Mr. Richard Heyworth, Manchester. The cost of the building will be about £10,000.”

The architects are Messrs. Waddington and Son, of Burnley. On the occasion of the opening. Professor John Marshall, F.R.S., ex-President of the Royal College of Surgeons, gave an address on the advantages of circular wards, and said it was one of the proudest moments of bis life to see in bricks and mortar, wood and machinery, an idea which had been floating in his mind for many years. Professor Marshall’s views will be found in the Builder for Jan. 3, 1885. The subject was also very fully discussed at the Sanitary Congress at Leicester last year, and for a resume of its pros and cons, we may refer our readers to Mr. Saxon Snell’s paper and the discussion thereupon (see Builder for Sept. 26, 1885, p. 443, and Oct. 17, p. 549).