DOI Heft:
No. 120 (February, 1907)
DOI Artikel:The Kings sanatorium at Midhurst and its chapel
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28250#0323
The King s Sanatorium and its Chapel
with rounded tiles next the floor. The patients’
department consists of three distinct blocks, so
arranged that each class of patient of both sexes can
reach either the grounds or the common portions
of the building without passing the rooms of any
other class. The bedrooms on the ground floor,
which are, alternatively, either 16 or 14 ft. by njft.,
give on to a wide balcony facing the south. Those
on the first floor have a balcony 9 feet wide, which
is so arranged as to be capable of being screened
off from the patients occupying adjoining rooms.
Throughout the building two main points seem
to have been very carefully studied; firstly, the
treatment of the interior so as to offer the minimum
amount of projection upon which dust and its con-
sequent germs could rest, and, secondly, to offer
the maximum amount of opportunity for admitting
that pure fre>sh air which is acknowledged to-day to
be more potent in fighting consumption than a
whole pharmacopoeia of drugs.
The same simplicity and reticence which char-
acterise Mr. Percy Adams’ treatment of the interior
obtain also in his design for the exterior. The
illustrations on pages 307 and 310 show how little
demand he makes upon cornices, carved enrich-
ments. or what certain architects call features,
for any of his effect. The latter is gained partly
by a disposition of masses carefully balanced
and well considered, and partly by the colour
and quality of the materials employed. By
quality, in this instance, is not meant the par-
ticular grade of excellence of any of these materials,
but the word is rather used in the painter’s sense,
as connoting the aesthetic value of their texture
and surface, and the artistic gain resulting from
their juxtaposition and consequent contrast or
harmony. Thus, the Bracknell red and the Luton
grey bricks are arranged to play with and help
one another, and are either coursed alternately
or are laid in bands which are sometimes single
and sometimes several bricks in depth. The grey
pointing also tones the whole pleasantly, and tends
to avoid the usual too brilliant effect of new work.
Stone is sparingly introduced, as in the principal
entrance (p. 307), and, when it does occur, it is
treated flatly and with little carving or moulding.
In those rooms, such as the large recreation-room
and the dining-hall, where panelling and chimney-
pieces occur, these have all been kept as free as
possible from projecting mouldings, the place of
which, for the purposes of enrichment, has been
taken by the use of inlay, generally of hellywood
or ebony. Some of the furniture—but, unfortu-
nately, only some—has been specially designed,
INTERIOR OF THE KINGS SANATORIUM CHAPEL3 MIDHURST H. PERCY ADAMS ARCHITECT
3°9
with rounded tiles next the floor. The patients’
department consists of three distinct blocks, so
arranged that each class of patient of both sexes can
reach either the grounds or the common portions
of the building without passing the rooms of any
other class. The bedrooms on the ground floor,
which are, alternatively, either 16 or 14 ft. by njft.,
give on to a wide balcony facing the south. Those
on the first floor have a balcony 9 feet wide, which
is so arranged as to be capable of being screened
off from the patients occupying adjoining rooms.
Throughout the building two main points seem
to have been very carefully studied; firstly, the
treatment of the interior so as to offer the minimum
amount of projection upon which dust and its con-
sequent germs could rest, and, secondly, to offer
the maximum amount of opportunity for admitting
that pure fre>sh air which is acknowledged to-day to
be more potent in fighting consumption than a
whole pharmacopoeia of drugs.
The same simplicity and reticence which char-
acterise Mr. Percy Adams’ treatment of the interior
obtain also in his design for the exterior. The
illustrations on pages 307 and 310 show how little
demand he makes upon cornices, carved enrich-
ments. or what certain architects call features,
for any of his effect. The latter is gained partly
by a disposition of masses carefully balanced
and well considered, and partly by the colour
and quality of the materials employed. By
quality, in this instance, is not meant the par-
ticular grade of excellence of any of these materials,
but the word is rather used in the painter’s sense,
as connoting the aesthetic value of their texture
and surface, and the artistic gain resulting from
their juxtaposition and consequent contrast or
harmony. Thus, the Bracknell red and the Luton
grey bricks are arranged to play with and help
one another, and are either coursed alternately
or are laid in bands which are sometimes single
and sometimes several bricks in depth. The grey
pointing also tones the whole pleasantly, and tends
to avoid the usual too brilliant effect of new work.
Stone is sparingly introduced, as in the principal
entrance (p. 307), and, when it does occur, it is
treated flatly and with little carving or moulding.
In those rooms, such as the large recreation-room
and the dining-hall, where panelling and chimney-
pieces occur, these have all been kept as free as
possible from projecting mouldings, the place of
which, for the purposes of enrichment, has been
taken by the use of inlay, generally of hellywood
or ebony. Some of the furniture—but, unfortu-
nately, only some—has been specially designed,
INTERIOR OF THE KINGS SANATORIUM CHAPEL3 MIDHURST H. PERCY ADAMS ARCHITECT
3°9