St Charles Hospital, Kensington

Role: Architecture

Value: £10million

PRP won an invited competition with ideas for the redevelopment of St Charles Hospital in Kensington. An option appraisal was commissioned culminating in the preparation of a series of detailed planning applications for a range of healthcare uses.

The original hospital building was completed in 1881 and is an early pioneering example of a workhouse infirmary. The main building comprises a typical example of Nightingale wards along a central spine or street. A nurse training school called Nightingale House initiated by Florence Nightingale was added a couple of years later. The whole site is Grade II listed.

The key element of the PRP approach has been the conversion of Nightingale type wards to facilitate modern healthcare provision. It was decided that one entire wing and a new X-ray department would be converted and extended to accommodate elderly rehabilitation facilities. The scheme involves clearing away various unsympathetic additions to reveal the original buildings, which are to be converted and refurbished, inserting a three storey link block connecting the ends of the original wards and creating two garden courtyards at the centre.

The accommodation brief includes 56 beds and a day hospital for elderly rehabilitation patients. The scheme also involves reconfiguring various primary care services including a new X-ray department, physiotherapy and minor injuries departments.

Extensive consultations with the planning authority and English Heritage were carried out leading to full planning approval and Listed Building consent.

Following on from the appointment to design a new Rehabilitation Centre for older people at St Charles Hospital, PRP was commissioned to plan and implement a programme of ward refurbishments within the original historic building.

The phased projects involved the careful and sensitive re-planning and refurbishment of existing Nightingale-type ward areas to provide new modern inpatient facilities for older people. The work has also included a major upgrade of the X-ray Department, Minor Injuries Unit, Outpatient and Therapy Departments. Engineering services are being completely replaced and there has been an extensive programme of asbestos removal. All clinical departments have had to remain operational throughout the process.