Sully Hospital ( cy, Ysbyty Sully) was a

psychiatric hospital Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociat ...

Sully, Vale of Glamorgan Sully ( cy, Sili) is a village in the community of Sully and Lavernock, in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, lying on the northern coast of the Bristol Channel, midway between the towns of Penarth and Barry and 7 miles (11.3 kilometres) southwest of ...

, Wales. It has since been converted into luxury apartments and remains a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The classical and elegant

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

structure was designed by the firm of William Pite, Son and Fairweathers who had won an open competition to design the new building in 1931. Established by the

King Edward VII Welsh National Memorial Association The King Edward VII Welsh National Memorial Association or WNMA was a Welsh voluntary association set up to combat tuberculosis. The lord mayor of Cardiff, alderman John Chappell, convened a meeting in Shrewsbury on 30 September 1910 to decide w ...

"for the intensive investigation of observation cases and for the treatment by modern methods of chronic and advanced pulmonary disease", it was built between 1932 and 1936 and officially opened by

Prince George, Duke of Kent Prince George, Duke of Kent, (George Edward Alexander Edmund; 20 December 1902 – 25 August 1942) was a member of the British royal family, the fourth son of King George V and Queen Mary. He was a younger brother of kings Edward VIII and Geo ...

as a specialist

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

facility in 1936. It is described in the Glamorgan volume of

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

's 'The Buildings of Wales' as "An outstanding example of inter-war architecture, which has survived almost unaltered" and is considered to be the finest representation of

Modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

sanatorium A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal, make healthy'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, are antiquated names for specialised hospitals, for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments and convalescence. Sanatoriums are often ...

s in Britain and one of the last great Modernist landmarks remaining in the whole of Wales. The design is similar to Alvar Aalto's

Paimio Sanatorium Paimio Sanatorium ( fi, Paimion parantola, sv, Pemars sanatorium) is a former tuberculosis sanatorium in Paimio, Southwest Finland, designed by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. Aalto received the design commission having won the architectural ...

in Finland, which was completed only three years earlier. As at Paimio, the use of a concrete structural frame enabled the use of wide windows, proving the patients with sunlight, fresh air and views. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

it began to admit patients without tuberculosis, and it afterwards served as a general chest and heart treatment facility. During the war, it had general surgery wards and its own maternity unit. In 1943 there was a Battalion of American Seabees, the US Construction Corps, living on a merchant vessel tied up in Penarth docks, while they built a large number of

Quonset hut A Quonset hut is a lightweight prefabricated structure of corrugated galvanized steel having a semi cylindrical cross-section. The design was developed in the United States, based on the Nissen hut introduced by the British during World War ...

s for a rapid temporary expansions of Sully Hospital needed for the extra wartime pressure of additional patients, both military and civilian. Many of the Quonset huts remained in use as overflow accommodation until the mid-1960s. In 1993 the hospital switched to a speciality in residential psychiatric care until its final closure as a hospital in 2001. While standing vacant the hospital building was briefly considered as a potential location for the temporary housing of up to 750 Eastern European asylum seekers, but those plans were eventually shelved after a campaign and objections by local residents. In the early 21st century the building was converted into individual luxury apartments by the investment property company Galliard Homes.

References

{{authority control Hospitals in the Vale of Glamorgan Grade II* listed buildings in the Vale of Glamorgan Former psychiatric hospitals in Wales Hospitals established in 1936 1936 establishments in Wales Modernist architecture in Wales