Rochford Hospital Boiler House
From Boilers to Bedrooms!
By Sue Horncastle
One landmark that anyone in the Rochford area must have noticed is the old hospital boiler house chimney, it can be seen for miles around. From Hawkwell to Stambridge and Canewdon to Southend the white chimney above a rectangular block dominates the surrounding houses. But the chimney is just the top of a very interesting building. When the old Rochford Hospital was threatened with closure this structure was one of those on the site which was listed as being of particular interest from the point of view of architectural history.
The chimney was surrounded by a tall thin water tower which was the central part of a large rectangular building constructed in the Early Modern style. It housed all the boilers, fuel stores, engines, pumps, workshops and other equipment needed to supply hot water and heating to what, by that time, was a very large hospital complex which had been steadily expanding from the old Rochford Union Workhouse buildings all through the 20th century.
The boiler house design was in the style of both Bankside and Battersea power stations, though smaller and in yellow brick. The original contract was won by Tileman & Co., 22 Carlisle Place, Westminster, SW1, as shown on a document signed on 23 July 1938. They agreed to carry out the work at a cost of £1872. The initial brickwork was estimated to take just over three months but in fact the boiler house was not completed until the mid 1940s due to the 2nd World War.
Fifty years later the hospital was closed and the boiler house became derelict - inhabited by pigeons and containing only rusting equipment. Until Squarefoot Properties Ltd. came on the scene in 1996. A company which specialised in turning disused industrial buildings into homes, Squarefoot could see the unique potential of the old boiler house, which could not be demolished due to its listed status but was becoming an eyesore.
With architects Traer Clark and the support of Rochford District Council and English Heritage the entire building was converted into 31 spacious loft appartments.
These homes still contain some of the exposed brickwork, original metallic equipment and other features of the hospital boiler house. The chimney is now a lift shaft leading to the higher level lofts and the positions of other installations for its original functions are highlighted as part of the design.