3-071-070 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Devonshire Hospital, Buxton, with the additional building, 1881. 'The governors of 'the Convalescent Fund had the satisfaction of finding that their magnificent grant would be the means of annually admitting to the benefits of the hospital not much fewer than 1500 patients annually, in addition to those whom the institution had hitherto been capable of receiving, and not merely of receiving them, but restoring them to the active habits of life...Lord Derby is the owner of large property in the Lancashire cotton districts, whose grant of £24,000 has supplied the bulk of the capital with which the hospital extension has been carried out, while one half of the former structure was given by the late Duke of Devonshire. The hospital extension is an immense hall, half an acre in superficial area. The centre has been covered with a huge dome formed of wrought-iron ribs supported on the existing stone pillars, and lighted by a lofty lantern 40 feet in diameter and by 4500 feet of skylight. The height from the floor to the roof of the lantern is 93 feet, and to the top of the final 118. The vast interior is warmed by hot-water apparatus. It is lighted by gas, and is capable of holding 6000 people. The architect is Mr. R. R. Duke'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.