English Hospitals, 1660-1948: A Survey of Their Architecture and Design (review)

Abstract

This study is the elegant façade of a much greater building. It is based on a survey of English hospitals carried out between 1991 and 1994 by staff of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. Three teams of two investigators based in different parts of the country compiled an archive containing information on some two thousand hospital sites, many of them now only map references to long-demolished institutions. The survey covered the entire range of hospital types, including the buildings of the armed forces. Each site was entered in a database, and an associated file was created containing a brief report, Ordnance Survey maps, available documentation, and photographs both early (some very early) and modern (including aerial). The archive is publicly accessible at the National Monuments Record Centre, Swindon, Wiltshire. A county-by-county list of the sites appears as an appendix to this volume.