Dellwood Hospital in Reading could become care home as decision due next week

A former Reading hospital and GP surgery could become a care home – with the council set to make a decision next week. Montpelier Estates has applied to carry out a partial demolition at Dellwood Hospital, on Liebenrood Road in Tilehurst.

The developer hopes to convert and extend the existing building to form a 56-bed care home. This would “be capable of providing care to residents of all dependency levels, including those with higher dependency, who require nursing care or dementia care within a specialist unit designed to cater for their needs”.

The Victorian building, which became a maternity home in 1920, was hit by a devastating fire in 1954 that led to the deaths of 13 babies. The blaze was described at the time as ‘Reading’s Greatest Tragedy’.

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A report by planning officers from Reading Borough Council states: “The existing hospital building is a two-and-a-half storey Victorian building built in the late 1890s. The building incorporates a number of different terracotta details, red-faced brickwork, and overlapping geometric patterned clay wall tiles in the two large feature front gable roof projections that face Liebenrood Road. The building’s windows comprise large stone cills and string courses and there are two large, two-storey feature bay windows to the front elevation. The building was converted into a Community Hospital and Maternity Home in 1920.

“The hospital was the scene of a catastrophic fire on Easter Sunday in April 1954 where 13 babies sadly died. Nurse Freda Holland was awarded the George Cross for her efforts in saving the lives of some of the babies at the hospital. Understandably the building retains a strong link to the Reading community given its shared history and the fact that a substantial number of people were born there may still live locally.”

It added the building received “unsympathetic” extensions in the 1970s and was used as a GP surgery for the elderly until 2005. It then declared surplus to requirements and has been vacant ever since – with the services it provided moved to Prospect Park Hospital.

Reading Borough Council is set to make a decision on the application at its Planning Committee on Wednesday, June 1.