St Martin's House is a heritage-listed former

private hospital A private hospital is a hospital not owned by the government, including for-profit and non-profit hospitals. Funding is by patients themselves ("self-pay"), by insurers, or by foreign embassies. Private hospitals are commonly part, albeit in var ...

and now administration building within the grounds of St John's Cathedral at 373 Ann Street, Brisbane City,

City of Brisbane The City of Brisbane is a local government area (LGA) which comprises the inner portion of Greater Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia. Its governing body is the Brisbane City Council. The LGAs in the other mainland state capitals ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. It was designed by Lange Leopold Powell and built by Thomas Keenan. It is also known as St Martin's Hospital. It was added to the

Queensland Heritage Register The Queensland Heritage Register is a heritage register, a statutory list of places in Queensland, Australia that are protected by Queensland legislation, the Queensland Heritage Act 1992. It is maintained by the Queensland Heritage Council. As ...

on 21 October 1992.

History

St Martin's House was built as a hospital by the

Anglican Church Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

as a memorial to those who had fought in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. The name St Martin's Hospital was chosen as the Armistice of World War I (11 November 1918) had been signed on

St Martin's day Saint Martin's Day or Martinmas (obsolete: Martlemas), and historically called Old Halloween or All Hallows Eve, is the feast day of Saint Martin of Tours and is celebrated in the liturgical year on 11 November. In the Middle Ages and early mod ...

. In 1920, architect

Lange Powell Lange Leopold Powell (1886–1938) was a noted architect who designed many important buildings in Brisbane and the state of Queensland. He started practice in 1909; his major works included St Martin's War Memorial Hospital (opened 1922) and th ...

won the competition for the St Martin's War Memorial Hospital. Powell was known to be skillful with pen, ink work and watercolour render, therefore he submitted a perspective rendering of the hospital which was described by the Most Reverend

St Clair Donaldson St Clair George Alfred Donaldson (11 February 1863 – 7 December 1935) was an English Anglican bishop. He was the first Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, Australia. Early life Donaldson was the third son of Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson and h ...

, Archbishop of Brisbane, as "a gem in architecture".'Lange L. Powell, Architect', Kerr, Margaret F.; pgs: 33-35, Faculty of Architecture, University of Queensland, February 1957 It was an accomplished design by an eminent local architect with an eclectic repertoire. The proposed site was on

Wickham Terrace Wickham Terrace is one of the historic streets of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is known as the street of private medical specialists. Geography Wickham Terrace commences at the western corner of the intersection of Ann Street, Brisbane, ...

where Anzac House now stands, but it was rejected because it was considered too far out of town. The hospital is constructed using mainly bricks and stone on solid rock foundations. Thomas Keenan and Son were assigned as the contractors of the project. St Martin's Hospital was built by local contractor Thomas Keenan & Son for approximately £46,000 ($92,000). The hospital was officially opened On 28 November 1922 and dedicated by the then Governor-General of Australia,

Lord Forster Henry William Forster, 1st Baron Forster, (31 January 1866 – 15 January 1936) was a British politician who served as the seventh Governor-General of Australia, in office from 1920 to 1925. He had previously been a government minister under ...

. The hospital was run by the Sisters of the Sacred Advent to care for the sick, and contained seven main wards, single rooms and two operating theatres. The main kitchen was built on the top floor, while smaller kitchens were installed on each floor for food distribution. Powell designed it with a close; however it was proven to be irrelevant in some ways as it cuts off air ventilation to the patient's room. A children's wing was added in 1940. In 1945 a statue of St Martin, designed by William Bustard and crafted by Jack Muller was set in the Ann Street wall of the hospital. In June 1971 the hospital was closed, and the patients moved to a new hospital at Zillmere. During the 1970s, plans to demolish the building were thwarted by a public campaign led by the Save St. Martin's Committee. Recently the building was renovated, and in November 1990 St Martin's House was opened as the administrative headquarters for the Anglican Diocese. The top floor was converted to living quarters for the Precentor.

Description

St Martin's House is built on stone

foundations Foundation(s) or The Foundation(s) may refer to: Common uses * Foundation (cosmetics), a skin-coloured makeup cream applied to the face * Foundation (engineering), the element of a structure which connects it to the ground, and transfers loads f ...

with external walls of brick with

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

facings, and is roofed with

terracotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...

shingle tiles. The building is organised in plan so as to create a series of protected

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary a ...

s around the south

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

of St John's Cathedral. This maintains the continuity of the system of closed spaces that surround the cathedral on three sides. The base consists of

Brisbane tuff Brisbane tuff is a type of rock, formed as a result of a volcanic eruption. As the name suggests, it is a type of tuff found in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is a form of welded ignimbrite. Brisbane tuff comes in a variety of colours: pin ...

, the ground floor to first floor's sill is made of sandstone and above this in brickwork with two stone string courses. The roof is high pitched and the windows are six paned pivot hung

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

s. The massing of the building is centred on the service tower which has radiating wings. The tower has three levels and a basement while the remainder of the building is two storeyed. The facade oriented towards the cathedral is the most ornate, with a conical roof over the

operating theatre An operating theater (also known as an Operating Room (OR), operating suite, operation suite, or Operation Theatre (OT)) is a facility within a hospital where surgical operations are carried out in an aseptic environment. Historically, the ter ...

, but that towards the south west with its

cloister A cloister (from Latin , "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open Arcade (architecture), arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle (architecture), quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cat ...

is also an important part of the building. Openings are a combination of square headed and semi-circular, segmented, and Gothic arches. It is evident that Powell was fond of ornamental rainwater heads. On the cathedral elevation there are two rainwater heads with arms extending five feet on either side, giving the appearance of a cross. The entrance is rather insignificant and opens into the vestibule which is paneled in dark oak timber. There are private rooms on the cathedral side and small wards on the other, which open onto a wide

balcony A balcony (from , "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. They are commonly found on multi-level houses, apartme ...

. The nurses’ quarters are in a two-storey wing of Eton House, which is just adjacent to the hospital. A children's wing was added in 1940 by John Darnell and the design is to blend with the main hospital. Although St Martin's is arguably not the most practical design for a hospital, it was mentioned that Powell made the plan to suit the elevation. The exterior is enhanced by the quality of the detailing including: the

corbelled In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a bearing weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applie ...

brickwork, cruciform rain-water spouts, and the statue of

St Martin of Tours Martin of Tours (; 316/3368 November 397) was the third bishop of Tours. He is the patron saint of many communities and organizations across Europe, including France's Third Republic. A native of Pannonia (present-day Hungary), he converted ...

in a

niche Niche may refer to: Science *Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development and growth *Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species *Niche differentiation, in ec ...

in the western

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

Arts and Crafts The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...

elements are clearly evident, and visually there are many similarities with the house most identified with that movement in the United Kingdom, the Red House by

Philip Webb Philip Speakman Webb (12 January 1831 – 17 April 1915) was a British architect and designer sometimes called the Father of Arts and Crafts Architecture. His use of vernacular architecture demonstrated his commitment to "the art of common ...

. Gothic elements are also present and St Martin's complements the other buildings which form the cathedral group. Internally almost all the evidence of the building's use as a hospital has been lost in its change to office and residential use. Although the joinery has been retained, the northern wards and central corridor have been combined into one large office area and

suspended ceiling A dropped ceiling is a secondary ceiling, hung below the main (structural) ceiling. It may also be referred to as a drop ceiling, T-bar ceiling, false ceiling, suspended ceiling, grid ceiling, drop in ceiling, drop out ceiling, or ceiling til ...

s installed. The original top floor kitchen has been converted into living quarters. The southern

veranda A veranda (also spelled verandah in Australian and New Zealand English) is a roofed, open-air hallway or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front an ...

h is enclosed, and a fire stair has been constructed behind the facade facing Ann Street.

Heritage listing

St Martin's House was listed on the

on 21 October 1992 having satisfied the following criteria. The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history. St Martin's House is significant as a memorial to World War I servicemen and women. The building also survives as evidence of the nursing activities of the Sisters of the Sacred Advent. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places. St Martin's House is significant as a highly accomplished building displaying characteristic Arts and Crafts massing, fine detail and workmanship, and a range of major materials. The building forms an integral part of a group of ecclesiastical buildings and spaces. The place is important because of its aesthetic significance. St Martin's House is significant as a highly accomplished building displaying characteristic Arts and Crafts massing, fine detail and workmanship, and a range of major materials. The building forms an integral part of a group of ecclesiastical buildings and spaces. The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history. St Martin's House is significant as a fine example of the work of eminent architect Lange Powell, and a major work of Thomas Keenan, builder.

References

Attribution

External links

St Martin's Hospital Oral History

State Library of Queensland State Library of Queensland (State Library) is the state public reference and research library of Queensland, Australia, operated by the Government of Queensland, state government. The Library is governed by the Library Board of Queensland, whi ...