LIVES OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE
The E.J. Boys Archive

Added 1.9.2013.

IN PROGRESS - NOT PUBLISHED

The RVPA: Why Gothic?

The Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum was designed by Major Rhode Hawkins in a Gothic style. According to a report when the building's foundation stone was laid by Queen Victoria on 11 July 1857, his model would be "Heriot's Hospital" in Edinburgh, "though less decorative in its embellishments".

It is becoming evident that a great number of similarly-shaped buildings were constructed around this time, which might be interesting to investigate.

Heriot's Hospital

The choice as a model for the RVPA of the Gothic Heriot's Hospital, one of several monumental institutions in an around Edinburgh founded for the care and education of destitute children, is interesting.

George Heriot, goldsmith to James VI, left funds in 1623 for the endowment of a Hospital for "maintenance, relief and bringing up" of poor fatherless boys, freemen's sons of the town. The building was finally completed in 1660 at a cost of £27,000. It is now George Heriot's School.

Some these philanthropic foundations were neo-classical in style, including John Watson's Hospital (founded 1759, now the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art), and Merchant Maiden Hospital (founded 1695 for the education of daughters of decayed merchant burgesses of Edinburgh).

But a number were emphatically Gothic, among them Heriot's Hospital, Gillespie's Hospital (building commenced 1801, for the instruction of one hundred poor boys in reading, writing and arithmetic), and the extraordinary confection that is Fettes College, founded in 1870 for the education of poor children and orphans. The resemblance of Fettes to the RVPA is striking.

Royal Masonic School for Girls (opened 1852)

Another likely influence, this time from less than a mile away on the other side of Wandsworth Common, was the Royal Masonic School for Girls (opened 1852).

To follow up

Perhaps look at the remarkable Nicholls Hospital (now the Ellen Wilkinson High School) in the Ardwick district of Manchester:

"designed [or built?] in 1879-80 by the prolific Manchester architect Thomas Worthington. Formerly known as Nicholls Hospital, the building was funded by Benjamin Nicholls as a memorial to his son, John Ashton Nicholls. Nicholls commissioned Worthington to prepare designs in 1867, with instructions that building was only to commence after his own death. It was Worthington's last significant commission in the city. The original usage was as an orphanage; the Ashton family gave over £100,000 to its construction and endowment.

The style is flamboyant Flemish Gothic in red brick with sandstone dressings and steeply-pitched slate roofs. The main range is double-pile with eleven bays and a massive central tower, which shows clear similarities to that of Worthington's City Police Courts at Minshull Street. The tower was originally embellished by Worthington's trade-mark animal carving but the majority were removed in the 20th century."

[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholls_Hospital (accessed 20.1.2014).]

Other links

http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-388201-ellen-wilkinson-high-school-

http://manchesterhistory.net/manchester/outside/nicholls.html

http://manchesterhistory.net/ardwick/nicholls/nichopen.html

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nicholls,_John_Ashton_(DNB00)

Also follow the reference to the City Police Courts building in Minshull Street (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Police_Courts,_Manchester).