Details
LINCOLN
SK9771NW UNION ROAD
1941-1/8/385 (West side)
02/10/69 The Lawn
GV II*
Mental hospital, now a museum, meetings and entertainment
centre. Built 1820. By Richard Ingleman of Southwell, with
late C19 additions. Extensive restoration and conversion
1989-90, with additions including conference hall to central
quadrangle. Yellow and red brick, with stucco front and gabled
and hipped slate roofs. Classical Revival style.
EXTERIOR: eaves cornice, coped parapet, pedimented gables,
various stacks. Windows are mainly glazing bar sashes.
Main block with flanking wings, rear wings flanking central
quadrangle, rear range including former theatre. 2 and 3
storeys, 19 x 15 bays.
Main block, 3 storeys, 5 bays, has a giant Ionic portico with
pediment. Central doorway with moulded Egyptian architrave,
flanked by 2 sashes. Above, 5 sashes on each floor, those to
the second floor being smaller. Flanking wings, 2 storeys, 5
bays, have regular fenestration on each floor. Projecting
terminal blocks, 2 storeys, have 2 windows on each floor. Rear
has regular fenestration and 2 semicircular projecting bays.
Rear wings, 2 storeys, 10 bays, flanking the central
quadrangle, have hipped 2 storey central projections and end
pavilions.
Former theatre, now Lawrence Hall, forming the north side of
the quadrangle, 2 storeys, 5 bays, has a central gabled dormer
on each side, and 5 gablet ventilators. Round arched cross
casement in north gable.
INTERIOR: main block has central stairwell with reeded
cornices and a panelled elliptical arch on each floor. Stone
cantilever open well staircase with wrought-iron balustrade.
Neustadt room has reeded fireplace and basket grate. On each
floor, ranges of single-patient cells, many of them
remodelled. Lawrence Hall, formerly the theatre, has an arch
braced roof with panelled ceiling, and an elliptical
proscenium arch flanked by pedimented doorcases. At the rear,
a wooden fire surround with cornice and overmantel.
HISTORY: the Lawn is important in the treatment of the
mentally ill because Edward Parker Charlesworth and Robert
Gardner Hill here pioneered the treatment of patients without
physical restraint, between c1831 and 1838. This principle was
adopted at the influential Hanwell Asylum from 1839.
(Buildings of England : Lincolnshire: Pevsner N: Lincolnshire:
London: 1989-: 511; Kelsall F: Report on listable quality of
the building; Harwood E: Dissertation on mental hospitals).
Listing NGR: SK9728371873
