St John's Hospital on London Road was built as the County Pauper Lunatic Asylum. Building commenced in 1846, and was completed and the asylum opened in 1852, with room for 250 patients. Additions were made in 1855-56, 1860, 1880 and 1916. The plain Italianate style prevails throughout the large central building, and in all its wings and outbuildings, which occupied about 7 acres. About 8 acres were occupied by gardens, lawns, plantations and roads, and this left about 30 acres for a farm which was worked by the patients. The average number of patients in 1854 was 244. The asylum mortuary chapel and burial ground (in a separate area to the south-east of the main hospital complex see PRN65780) were consecrated by the Bishop in 1855. {1}{2} Several buildings in the former hospital complex are listed. These include the main building, The Homestead, which is the former Director's House, recently used as offices (PRN 65602), the Lodge (PRN 65564) and the chapel at the main hospital complex (PRN 65489). Also listed are former staff houses, which have been used more recently as offices. These are Crondall House (PRN 65565), Norfolk House (PRN 65603), and Oakleigh (PRN 65548). For the full description and the legal address of these listed buildings please refer to the appropriate List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. {3} The Lincolnshire County Pauper Lunatic Asylum was designed by Hamilton and Medland of Gloucester in 1848, and built in 1850-52. The building is of an Italianate design in local ‘blue’ stone, with dressings of Mansfield stone, and slate, hipped roofs and many stone stacks. The various additions are in keeping with the style of the original building. The main southern façade of three storeys is dominated by the former superintendent’s house. It has a central doorway with a projecting Doric porch with half-columns, entablature and balustrade. Central to the main projecting gable is an octagonal ashlar cupola topped by a dome and finial. The east and west wings have square pavilions at the corners and round-ended central pavilions. The north entrance front is also three-storeys with a slightly projecting centre and projecting side wings. The central bay is topped by a pediment with integral clock, behind which is an octagonal cupola with a bell-canted roof. The central cupola and two flanking campanile-like turrets, give the building a distinctive skyline. Originally the patient accommodation conformed to the standard corridor or gallery plan of the day: a row of single cells, day/dining rooms, and small dormitories accommodating between 3 and 10 patients opening off a gallery or day room. The original layout of the asylum is still very clear; with the pattern of cells, dormitories, galleries and dayrooms surviving, although much of the glazing has been replaced. An interesting and innovative feature of this phase is the honeycomb fireproof vaulting which survives in most areas of the building. The later 1852-1900 phase survives intact, and seems to have comprised dormitories rather than cells; probably to assist supervision of patients such as epileptics or suicide cases. Some original cast-iron glazing survives in blocked windows on each end block. The 1882 ranges survive, and have the same type of fireproof vaults as the original building. Very few internal features survive. The building incorporates a corridor of communication which ran along the back of the main south wing, enabling staff to pass from one end of the asylum to the other without having to enter the patient’s galleries. The original corridor has been partly demolished but the eastern end of the corridor displays an arch-braced, shallow-pitched, cast-iron roof. Decorative, painted coats of arms enhance the apex of each roof truss. The Lincolnshire asylum was also one of the first to have a ‘recreation’ hall. The original was superseded by a larger hall in 1902; this comprises seven bays in addition to the stage at its west end. It is open to the roof which has timber, hammer-beam trusses, and retains a number of ventilation cowls on the ridge. The proscenium arch has a segmental head, and the back of the stage is lit by a tripartite window containing art nouveau glazing. The asylum originally held 250 patients; females were assigned to the wings on the east and males to the wings on the west with the doctor’s accommodation in the centre. The original layout of the gardens with paths radiating from oval centre pieces provided extensive routes for exercise. A single-storey pedimented lodge of the original phase, still stands to the north (PRN65564). The asylum was extended in 1857 with new accommodation, raising the single-storey rear wings by one storey and adding new two-storey blocks at their ends. The next major addition to the site was the detached chapel (PRN65489). By 1872 the asylum housed nearly 600 patients and had a cemetery and a mortuary chapel south of the hospital (PRN65780). In 1880-82 two large new wings were added at either end of the asylum (these survive), bringing the capacity of the asylum to 680. The next additions, involving six ‘spur’ sanitary annexes, were made in 1897. By 1900 the asylum held 757 patients. A substantial rebuilding and expansion programme was started in 1901, including the demolition of the rear kitchen wing, and flanking workshop range. In its place was constructed a huge central dining and recreation hall, with a new kitchen and administration block, the latter forming a new north entrance to the hospital. At the same time, a detached medical superintendent’s house (The Homestead) was erected in the north-west corner of the site (PRN65603). The detached houses later known as Crondall House and Norfolk House may have been built at the same time (PRN65565 and PRN65603). Patient accommodation was expanded with two new L-shaped wings added to the north ends of the 1880-82 wings. Finally, an isolation hospital was erected to the east of the main complex. The administration block and flanking patient’s accommodation survive, together with the recreation hall. A fragment of the kitchen survives, together with the servery on the north side of the recreation hall. Only the centre of the north range of the workshop yard still stands. The isolation hospital has been demolished. According to archive documents two houses were built in 1907, this is probably the pair of houses now known as Oakleigh (PRN65548). Just before the First World War there were plans for new male and female wings, but in 1915 it was decided to complete the female block and abandon the male block. The female block has since been demolished. The concrete water tower was built in 1924-25 (PRN60605) to serve the laundry that has since been demolished. In 1929 two ‘chronic blocks’ were erected in the grounds to the south of the hospital. In 1931 an admissions hospital, a gate lodge, workshops, an engine room and a boiler house were built but all these structures have been demolished. All that survives from the 1930s is the nurses’ home, a neo-Georgian building of 1937-38 that has been converted to housing. The hospital closed in 1989 and was sold off for housing. For the full revised description of this listed building please refer to the National Heritage List for England. {4} The former hospital was the subject of a building survey by York Archaeological Trust, in 2007. The survey was conducted to inform proposed alterations to the extensive complex. {5} In 2014, an analysis of the different layers of paint on a plastered wall at the hospital identified six decorative schemes that had, over time, been applied to the wall that was tested. The first scheme was carried out in 1852 (or soon after), in a plain stone-coloured lead oil paint, followed by three further schemes during the 19th century, again in stone-coloured oil paints. A 'figured' scheme (probably similar to the one visible in 2014) was carried out towards the end of the 19th century and finally the scheme of 2014, a scheme of faux ashlar block work with a varnish layer on the surface, which probably dates to the early 20th century. {6}