Hope Hospital, Stott Lane and Eccles Old Road, Hope, Pendleton

SALFORD - The Guardians of the Poor for the Salford Union are intending to erect permanent hospitals and infirmaries for 600 patients, together with all the necessary outbuildings and accessories on the new site at Hope, near Eccles. The Board have unanimously appointed Mr L. Booth of Manchester, as their architect to design and carry out the whole of the intended works. [Builder 2 November 1879 page 1158]

SALFORD UNION The Guardians of the Poor of the Salford Union are prepared to receive tenders and enter into a contract for the whole or sections of the several works required in the erection of a NEW HOSPITAL and other Ancillary Buildings and Boundary walls at Hope, Pendleton, near Manchester, according to plans, specifications and conditions which may be seen on application to Mr L Booth FRIBA of 88 King Street, Manchester.

A large and substantial structure of brick with terra-cotta dressings in the Queen Anne style, designed on the pavilion principle by Mr Lawrence Booth, architect, of Manchester. The building was opened for the reception of patients in October 1882. There are two double and five single pavilion blocks for patients and a central administrative block with a clock tower 100 feet high and containing a suite of rooms for the use of the officials, and a large hall that can be used as a winter garden, or for recreative purposes; a continuous corridor 850 feet in length by 10 feet wide connects the several blocks with each other. The two double blocks will hold 200 and the four single blocks 100 patients each. Attached are Protestant and Roman Catholic chapels and a home for 180 nurses. The laundry department is fitted with modern laundry machinery and appliances. [Kelly Directory 1930].

THE NEW HOSPITAL AT HOPE - The new hospital—or infirmary, as we believe it will hereafter be designated—which been built at Hope for the accommodation of the sick and infirm poor of the Salford Union is now approaching completion, and is intended to be opened towards the close of the ensuing month or early in August. … The hospital been over two years in construction, the foundation stone having been laid on the 25th March, 1880, by the Chairman of the Salford Guardians, Mr Thomas Dickins. It is no secret that a good many of ratepayers viewed the action of the Guardians in providing this hospital with much disfavour. There would seem, however, to have been no help for it. The old workhouse in Eccles New Road was becoming more and more crowded, and every week brought something to the front which showed the necessity for an extension. After due consideration the Guardians decided to secure land at Hope, near Eccles, and to erect thereon an infirmary large enough for the reception of the sick and infirm paupers for a considerable period. When the present workhouse has been denuded of a large number of its inmates, it is the intention of the Guardians to utilise the services of the able-bodied paupers in a manner that will produce some return for the ratepayers, after the fashion in which the Government make use of the abilities of the prisoners in our gaols. It would appear that the Salford Guardians have been exceptionally fortunate in their arrangements, as a deputation from them were told by the Local Government Board that their new building, which had recently been inspected privately by one of their officials, was a credit to them, to their architect, and indeed to the county in which it was built. They looked upon it as one of the two really good pauper hospitals in the country, and they were much surprised at the exceedingly good price at which a handsome and satisfactory building had been erected. The only point to which they took exception was the building of two out of the seven pavilions as double ones.  They would have preferred to have had them all single, although it would have entailed a little extra cost in construction. In reviewing the recent International Medical and Sanitary Exhibition held at South Kensington, an eminent medical authority said:

"The most remarkable, however, of the many hospitals, the plans of which are here exhibited is one in course of erection by the Guardians of the Salford Union to the design of Mr Lawrence Booth. Containing 660 beds at a cost of £*3 per bed, every bed having an allowance of eighty square feet of floor space, and 1,000 cubic feet of air. Though the whole cost will be but little over £50,000, the constructional and sanitary arrangements seem perfect, and the hospital will be replete with every resource of science and art which can contribute to the efficiency of the administration and the comfort and convenience of the inmates and staff. “

The institution is situated near Hope Church, and presents two commanding frontages, one to the Eccles Old Road and the other, which is the principal one, to the railway between Weaste and Eccles. The central entrance is marked by a very lofty clock tower from which, it is said, seven counties can be seen. The site of the building is about 310 yards in length and 85 yards in breadth, bounded on the easterly side by an intended street 12 yards in width, and on the northerly side by a carriage drive of the same width. The hospital is designed on the pavilion principle and a continuous corridor 850 feet long and 30 feet wide connects the several pavilion blocks with each other and with the administrative block, which latter is placed in the centre so as to be easy of access from the several departments. This corridor is enclosed on the ground floor level, but on the two upper floors it forms an open gangway for communication between the several blocks. The sides are protected by parapet walls and iron palisading, and in favourable weather will provide a pleasant resort for patients sufficiently convalescent to enjoy the fresh air and view of the surrounding scenery, which at this point is perhaps in many respects the best that can be found in such proximity to Manchester. All the corridors and gangways are fireproof, the floors being formed of concrete carried on wrought-iron beams and rolled iron joists. Fireproof construction is also adopted in the staircases, which are of solid Yorkshire stone supported when necessary by cast-iron beams. In connection with each of the two double pavilion blocks, which together will contain 400 patients, an additional staircase of fireproof construction is provided for occasional use as another means of escape in the event of fire or panic. In connection with these staircases them are spacious open-air balconies on every floor level for the use of the semi-convalescent old men and women patients, for whose use the double wards are intended. The single-pavilion blocks are four in number, each designed to accommodate 100 patients. The easterly, or entrance block, is appropriated to probationary and other patients of a peculiar type, and is sub-divided on every floor into what are practically separate hospitals. This block, which is approached by a covered carriage way for the convenient reception of patients in all sorts of weather, provides for eighty patients, and also contains a residence for the head porter and wife, a register office for the adjacent weighing machine and storerooms for the patients' clothing. In connection with the wards there are twenty-four dayrooms placed to the south, with separate lavatories and other conveniences. The wards provide an average 80 superficial feet of floor space and 1,000 cubic feet of air or breathing space for each patient. The drainage and other sanitary arrangements are of the most effective kind. As there is a considerable proportion of Roman Catholic patients among the paupers of the Salford Union, a separate chapel is provided for them in addition to that provided for the Protestant section of the inmates. Both chapels are fitted with comfortable benches of pitch-pine and other requisites for the performance of divine service; and in proximity to each chapel there is a separate room and other conveniences for the use of the respective chaplains. In this latter respect the requirements of visitors to the institution have been anticipated and provided for. The central administrative block provides on the ground floor a large hall, which can be used as a winter garden or for recreative purposes, the whole length and breadth of the inner area, and about 45 feet in height; large kitchen, bakery, scullery, general storeroom, nurses' dining-room, servants' dining room, matron's room, and a series of storerooms for her use, storekeeper's residence and other rooms, medical officers' consulting room and waiting-room, Boardroom, cloak-room, and waiting room, clerk's office, porter's room, dispensary and drug store; and in the centre a spacious entrance hall, surmounted by a clock tower rising to a height of 100 feet, having a portico in front, approached by a wide flight of steps from the carriage drive. The rooms on the first and second floors of the administrative block are appropriated to the use of the medical officer, assistant medical officer, matron, nurses, servants, and other officials. The laundry department is situated immediately behind the administrative block, and is separated from it by wide covered way, having a glass roof as a protection to tradesmen and others when delivering goods and to the laundresses and servants passing between the two departments with linen, etc. The washing for 1,000 people, even when effected by the aid of steam power and the most approved mechanical inventions requires considerable space for its proper and expeditious performance. This department contains, on the ground floor level, a general wash-house. officers' wash-house, foul wash-house, drying stove, ironing and mangling room, receiving-room, sorting room, messroom, etc.

The wards and dayrooms are all warmed by fire-grates, constructed somewhat on the "Galton" principal, These in their action keep up a copious supply of warmed fresh air, drawn directly from the outside, and at the same time extract the partly vitiated internal atmosphere to keep up the combustion of the coal fire. Supplementary extraction shafts are also provided. The warming of the corridors, storerooms and staircases. as well the greater part the cooking, will be effected by steam supplied from the common boiler-house. It is intended to introduce the telephone for direct communication between the officials in the several departments, the communicating station being situate in the porter's room on the ground floor. The architectural style of the building, so far as it has been capable of any especial development, is known as the "Queen Anne," which was recommended by the architect as one peculiarly adapted to the necessities of hospital construction. It is thought to be, when kept within reasonable limits, economical in construction, picturesque and at the time essentially English and homely in appearance. The roofs are double the ordinary pitch, boarded, and covered with Welsh slates, bedded solid in hair mortar, and nailed to long battens. All outside walls are built with a cavity between the inner and outer linings and there is a damp-proof course throughout the entire building. Pitch-pine is used for floor beams, roof principals. and when seen they are wrought and varnished. Terra-cotta being a material that is now supplied of an almost imperishable character and at reasonable price, it has been freely introduced both for constructive and decorative purposes. The institution was designed by Mr Lawrence Booth FRIBA of King-street. in this city, and has been erected under his supervision. The contract for the execution of the work was let to Mr William Southern, of Salford, whose tender, (£43,480), was the lowest of those submitted for the complete building contract. The hospital is intended to be worked under medical supervision, and Dr. Conry, the present resident medical officer at the Workhouse, has been appointed by the Guardians as the first medical superintendent. It will not, of course. be filled to its fullest capacity in the first instance. About five or six hundred patients however, are awaiting removal now, and the Guardians have wisely provided for the increase which is sure to take place in a union like that of Salford. [Manchester Guardian 28 June 1882 page 6]

In 1883 a Testimonial was presented to Lawrence Booth by Salford Board of Guardians in respect of his work at Hope Hospital, not least because the final costs were below the original cost estimates. [British Architect 11 May 1883 Page 232]

Reference    The Builder 1880: I: 420.
Reference    Manchester Courier 20 December 1879 - contracts
Reference    Manchester Guardian 3 January 1880 page 11 - contracts
Reference    Manchester Guardian 10 January 1880 page 10 - contracts
Reference    Manchester Guardian 17 January 1880 page 10 – contracts
Reference    Manchester Guardian 28 June 1882 page 6
Reference    Kelly Directory 1930