Past & Present

Bucknall Hospital was a former hospital complex located on Eaves Lane. It was built in 1885 and opened on 30th June 1886. It was present until 2012, when the majority of the complex was demolished for housing development.

The hospital, which was formerly known as "Hanley, Stoke and Fenton Joint Infectious Diseases Hospital", was opened to originally function as a smallpox hospital for the districts of Stoke, Hanley and Fenton. It was built to replace an earlier, temporary establishment of 1883 at Penkhull. In its earliest form, the hospital comprised an administration block (Block 4 on-site), a 12-bed ward (Block 5 on-site), an isolation block for 5 beds (Block 6 on-site), an ‘iron pavilion’ for 12 beds (Block 7 on-site), and a laundry room (the central core of the extant ‘workshops’). The architect of the original scheme was G W Bradford of Hanley, and the total cost of the project was £7,525 - substantially exceeding the original allocation of £4,000 (of which £750 was spent on the acquisition of the site). The principal contractor for the construction was recorded as a Mr J Gallimore of Newcastle. An overview of the original hospital, details of its construction and its early development is afforded by an article published in The Builder magazine of 25 October, 1902 (p.370-371), as follows: "The original building for the Hanley, Stoke and Fenton Joint Infectious Diseases Hospital at Bucknall, North Staffordshire – which was built in 1885 – accommodated twenty-nine patients, comprising the south twelve bed pavilion, west half of isolation block for five beds, iron pavilion for twelve beds (now demolished), the south-east portion of the administrative block and the laundry block8. All the other buildings shown on the plan have been erected since the year 1895, at which time Mr Elijah Jones was appointed architect to the Board. These new extensions comprise two twelve-bed pavilions9, one eighteen-bed pavilion10, eastern extension to isolation block for four beds11, two wings to administrative block, a discharge block12, waiting room at entrance13, power station14, stable block15, the remodelling of laundry block, a concrete water storage tank, overhauling and renovating the whole of the drainage. The latest extensions were formally opened on 6 February, and consist of eighteen-bed pavilion, western wing of administrative block, power station, stable block and the remodelling of laundry block. The whole of the fittings of every description are of the very latest type and principle, the laundry being fitted with steam-driven machinery by Messrs Summerscales of Keighley, together with drying horses and hot air drying room. The disinfector is Messrs. Manlove and Alliott’s patent oval form. The whole of the buildings are lighted by electricity, generated by the complete plant in the power station, and overhead telephones from all buildings to the administrative block. When the covered ways are completed, the institution will in every way be a modern one. These covered ways are rendered a necessity by the bleakness of the site, and are disconnected at each building containing infection. The whole of the exteriors of the buildings are quite plain, in common brickwork, with red pressed brick dressings to the openings and angles, the roofs being covered with red-pressed tiles. The interiors have glazed tile and brick dados; maple and pitch-pine floors, polished cement plaster, with Keen’s cement finish16, pointed to walls (where not tiled) and ceilings. The whole of the walls in the new eighteen bed pavilion are covered from floor to ceiling with glazed tiles in selected tints. The heating is by means of hot air downdraught stoves, in bronze-green faience, with 3-in. orange coloured hearths and green faience kerbs. The lavatories, sinks and baths are of fireclay with white porcelain finish. The ventilation is by means of Boyle’s inlets and extractors to walls and grids in the ceilings connected to ridge ventilators. The hot water supply to baths &c is by means of a self-contained boiler in each annexe, which is also used for heating the several places in each annexe by means of wrought-iron piping round each. The total number of beds is now sixty-three, and the land has as many buildings on it as it will conveniently allow. The whole of the pavilion erections, comprising forty-six out of the sixty three beds, and other blocks, as mentioned, erected since 1895 under the directions and supervision of Mr Elijah Jones, architect, of Hanley. Messrs Embrey & Co, Fenton, were general contractors. The tiling was executed by the Marsden Tile Co, Burslem; the Terrazzo paving by Messrs Diespeker; baths, water closets, slopsinks and sanitary fittings and lavatories by Messrs Howsar and Sons, Hanley; stoves and grates by Messrs Shorland, Manchester; roof ventilators and inlets by Messrs Ellison; locks by Messrs Lockerbie & Wilkinson, Birmingham; furniture by Mr E Malkin, Hanley; bedsteads and ironmongery by Messrs Holdgate and Small, Stoke; drapery by Mr E Elliott; crockery by Mr Hastings, Hanley; boiler, engine, dynomos and electric plant by Messrs Blackburn, Starling and Co, Nottingham and Hanley; grates and chimneypieces by Mr J Collings, Hanley; wrought-iron dog-grate by Mr W Durose, Tunstall." For the first two years of the hospital’s existence, no cases of smallpox were identified in the area and the premises remained essentially unused. However, after an outbreak of smallpox in 1888 and coupled with the decision to widen the remit of the hospital to cover other diseases such as typhus and diphtheria, saw its conversion to a more general infectious diseases isolation hospital - as well as a corresponding expansion of provision with notable phases of construction in 1898, 1900, 1905, 1915 and the 1920s. [2]

The hospital complex was widely used over the 20th-century, as well as in the first 12 years of the 21st-century. In 2012, the decision was made to close Bucknall Hospital after 126 years - in order to relocate the majority of services to Royal Stoke University Hospital in Hartshill. When the complex closed, the majority of the site was demolished for housing development after being acquired by Keepmoat Homes and having two housing development applications approved by Stoke-on-Trent City Council. One was submitted in 2013 [3] and one was submitted in 2015 [4]. Both of them were approved, and the later proposal was used for the development. However, Rowan Lodge and Verity House (two former hospital buildings) were set to be converted into residential houses. The development on-site took place until 2023, but the buildings were never converted. In 2020, Keepmoat Homes applied to demolish both of the buildings - but the proposal was rejected due to a lack of up-to-date ecological information submitted in support of the application. [5] The former waiting hall (Rowan Lodge) is now awaiting the conversion into a 2-bedroom detached house by new owners, as Keepmoat Homes have now listed the building up for sale. [6] The same applies for the former doctor's house (Verity House), which is now awaiting residential conversion by new owners after being recently sold. [7]