Bendigo Health - landscape

62 Lucan Street, BENDIGO VIC 3550 - Property No 235622

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Greater Bendigo City

Main entrance and fountain

Statement of Significance

• Additional Place Information

  • Physical Description 1

    Bendigo Health - landscape - Physical Description 1

    The following descriptions only cover elements of primary or contributory significance on the Bendigo Hospital

    site.

    Landscape, Fountain and Boundary Treatments

    The site is rectangular and slopes gently uphill from Lucan Street toward Stewart Street. A palisade fence

    extends along the Lucan Street boundary of the site and this is where the main entrance into the site is located.

    A central driveway lined with avenue plantings of sixteen oak trees extends up from the main entrance to the

    main hospital buildings. The front of the site, along Lucan Street, is well planted with a variety of mature trees

    including Cypress, Liquid Amber, Ash and a Cork tree. A painted, cast concrete fountain centred within a shallow

    circular pool, was first installed in front of the Central Block in 1913, but was relocated near the main entrance in

    1972. The fountain is decorated with Baroque-style ornamentation.

    The boundary treatments date from c.1885. The decorative cast iron palisade fence, set into a bluestone base,

    curves inwards to form a semi-circular recess for the entrance, framed by two pairs of granite gate piers. The

    piers originally framed central iron gates, sufficiently wide for a horse-drawn vehicle, flanked by two smaller

    pedestrian gates. All the gates have since been removed, but the piers and fence are largely intact. At the

    corners of Lucan and Bayne Street, and Lucan and Arnold Streets, the boundary treatment changes from the

    palisade fence to a brick wall, which is variously intact around the perimeter of the site. Where intact, the red

    brick wall has a sandstone plinth and is approximately 2 to 2.5 metres high. The wall is capped by a rendered

    roll-over top with embedded glass to deter intrusion. Simple brick buttresses are located at regular intervals on

    the inner face of the wall.

    Modesty House

    Modesty House, built in 1891, is a double-storey red brick building with a double-storey verandah extending

    along the south-east elevation. The building turns its back on Stewart Street and addresses the rear of the main

    hospital buildings. It is rectangular in plan and has a hipped roof clad with corrugated iron. The similarly hipped

    and corrugated iron roof of the timber-framed verandah is separate to the main building's roof. Cast iron

    balustrade panels, brackets and friezes ornament the verandah structure. Timber-framed, double-hung windows

    are spaced at regular intervals across the elevations, while the main entrance is centrally located on the southeast

    elevation.

    Mortuary

    The Mortuary is a single-storey red brick and rendered building with a gabled roof clad with corrugated iron. The

    rectangular building was built in 1887on the Stewart Street boundary. Sections of the high brick boundary wall

    around the hospital site have been removed from the Stewart Street boundary and this wall originally abutted

    both ends of the Mortuary building. This accounts for its plain brick elevation to Stewart Street. Instead, the

    building was designed with entrances on the two gabled side elevations. These elevations on the short ends of

    the building each feature a central door with top light, flanked by narrow timber-framed, double-hung windows.

    Rendered dressings surround these door and window openings, and also surround circular vents with timber

    louvres in the gables above. Other rendered details include the gable coping, plinth and quoins at the building

    corners. On both building ends, a row of ten small rectangular openings extends above the windows and door,

    but below the circular vent. These openings are now glazed, but were probably left open originally to increase

    the ventilation of the building.

    Lansell Laboratory Building

    The Lansell Laboratory Building was constructed in 1928 of red brick with a tiled, hipped roof. The double-storey

    building is essentially rectangular in plan and addresses Arnold Street. The focus of the symmetrical front

    elevation is a central rendered loggia. The loggia has a pedimented parapet and a cornice supported on simple

    corbels. Just below the corbels, the name 'EDITH & GV LANSELL LABORAOTRY & CLINIC' is applied to the

    wall in rendered letters. All but one of the three round-arched openings to the front of the loggia, and the two

    side arches, have been infilled at a later date. A later concrete ramp and steps lead up to the central arch of the

    loggia and from there to the main entrance into the building through a modern glazed door.

    The building has multi-paned, steel-framed casement windows with painted concrete lintels and sills. Further

    decorative details include bands of brickwork, wrapping around all the building's elevations, with patterns formed

    by alternating manganese and red bricks. A barrel-vaulted ventilating dormer projects from the roof, above the

    loggia. It has horizontal louvres and is clad with metal sheet. It presumably assisted with the ventilation of the

    laboratories. Multiple ventilating tubes projecting from the roof also contributed to the ventilation system. Deep

    eaves, lined and bracketed with timber, are another feature of the building's design.

    Old Library

    The Old Library was built in 1908, originally as a Lunacy Ward. The single-storey, red brick building initially had

    a T-shaped plan, but the demolition of the rear wing has left it as essentially a rectangular building. Symmetrical

    bays projecting from the two short ends of the building accommodated toilets and were most probably the male

    and female ablution blocks. The building appears as though the north-east elevation was originally the front

    elevation. Before the nearby Pathology building was constructed, this elevation would have been directly visible

    from the main entrance on Lucan Street. This front elevation is distinguished by the jerkin head roofs over the

    two most prominent bays. A verandah originally extended between these bays, but has been enclosed at a later

    date. The remainder of the building has a hipped roof clad with corrugated iron.

    The current entrance into the building is through a modern glazed porch built between the ablution block and

    main building at the northern corner of the building. A further addition has been added to the southern corner of

    the building. The building features four brick chimneys with rendered tops, projecting from the main ridge. The

    multi-paned windows are timber-framed and double-hung.

    Yarrington House

    This single-storey residence built in c.1920 faces the main driveway of the hospital. It has a red brick plinth, with

    rendered walls above and a predominantly hipped roof covered with concrete tiles. The focus of the design is a

    central gabled porch on the north-east elevation. The porch has a large round-arched opening, emphasised by

    an elongated keystone and hood moulding. It appears as though the arch was originally face brick, but has been

    painted. Triangular buttresses to the front and sides of the porch provide further visual interest.

    Either side of the porch are double-hung, timber-framed windows in a set of three. The windows feature

    decorative leadlight in an Art Deco style, and rendered flower boxes permanently mounted below. A convex bay

    window, also comprising a set of three double-hung windows with Art Deco leadlight, projects from the southeast

    elevation. Elsewhere, the windows are similarly timber-framed, but not elaborated with leadlight. Two tall

    and slightly tapered rendered chimneys extend form the south-eastern side of the building. Later modifications

    include a concrete ramp and handrails up to the front porch. The porch floor has been concreted and the front

    door modified. A rendered addition with a gabled tiled roof has been added to the rear of the building.

    Heritage Study and Grading

    Heritage Study and Grading

    Greater Bendigo - Eaglehawk & Bendigo Heritage Study

    Author: Graeme Butler & Associates
    Year: 1993
    Grading: L

    Greater Bendigo - Consultant's Report

    Author: NA
    Year: 2019
    Grading: Local

• Attachments
  • 139 - Bendigo Goldfields Hospital, Lucan St
    
  • Bendigo Hospital Campus Citation
    
  • Boundary Fence, Walls & Main Entrance
    
  • Landscape
    
  • Fountain
    
  • Levels of Significance of buildings, structures and landscape
    
  • Bendigo Health's Hospital Heritage Survey 30 Nov 2010
    
• Location map
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