page_title: Holloway Sanatorium
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: Holloway Sanatorium / History / Construction
caption_attribution_description: Holloway Sanatorium, Virginia Water, Surrey, UK, in 1885
context_page_description: Holloway Sanatorium was an institution for the treatment of those suffering temporary mental illness, situated on 22 acres of aesthetically landscaped grounds near Virginia Water, Surrey, England, about 22 miles south-west of Charing Cross. Its largest buildings, including one listed at Grade I, have been restored and supplemented as Virginia Park, chiefly comprising Crossland House, The Grange, Gillespie House and Connolly Court. It has a spa complex, gymnasium, multi-purpose sports hall and an all-weather tennis court.
  Construction was conceived by the wealthy philanthropist Thomas Holloway, which entailed an elaborate Franco-Gothic style by W. H. Crossland, and took place between 1873 and 1885. The imposing exteriors and interiors have a sister building, the Royal Holloway College about a mile north; Sir Nikolaus Pevsner regarded the two as the "summit of High Victorian design". In 1948 the site was transferred to the National Health Service. In the year 2000, after more than a decade of neglect, the buildings were restored and some of the grounds converted to houses which led to the site's renaming.
context_section_description: The first clerk of works was J. P. Featherstone who had been a tenant farmer under Holloway: he was appointed in April 1873 and resigned on 24 December 1876. Among the contractors were: Sharpington & Cole, London (masons); W. H. Lascelles, Finsbury (joiner); George Burfoot, Windsor (paving); Pontifex & Wood, London (lead); Wilson W. Phipson (heating); J. Gibson, Battersea (landscaping); J. D. Richards, London (furnishings). Ancillary works included the gas works at a cost of £1,950, six cottages and a workshop, and the sewage works which were constructed by John Thompson of Peterborough at a cost of £1,500.
  A large workforce was employed during the twelve years.  The building accounts include costs of advertising for masons, not only locally in Surrey and Berkshire, but from as far as Birmingham and Manchester.  Holloway worked supervising the project closely until prevented by illness: unfortunately he died on Boxing Day 1883, eighteen months before the sanatorium was opened.
  By the time the institution was ready to admit patients, new regulations had come into force, and Crossland had to revise the internal arrangements to comply with the new safety regulations. Interior decoration was lavish: the great recreation hall with a grand beamed roof was decorated by the Scottish architect and designer John Moyr Smith at a cost of £400.
  The sanatorium  was officially opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra) on 12 June 1885. Mr. Martin-Holloway, who delivered the opening address, was Thomas Holloway's brother-in-law George Martin (1833–1895), who had married Sarah Anne Driver the sister of Jane Holloway.  George and his brother Henry assisted Thomas Holloway in the foundation of the Sanatorium and Royal Holloway College.  After Thomas Holloway died George assumed the additional name of Holloway, and was knighted in 1887.
caption: THE HOLLOWAY SANATORIUM, VIRGINIA WATER ... ... ... engravings from The Illustrated London News, June 20, 1885 1. Entrance-hall for patients. 2. Turkish-bath rooms. 3. Chapel. 4. Recreation-hall. 5. Patients' villa. 6. Dr. Phillips' house. 7. One of the sitting-rooms.
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