History:
By the late 19th century, the pavilion plan provided the basic configuration for hospital design. Florence Nightingale had developed these ideas in her 'Notes on Hospitals' that was published in 1863. The General Infirmary at Leeds was one of the largest early pavilion plan hospitals closely modelled on the Lariboisiere plan with pavilion wards either side of a courtyard. It also incorporated Nightingale's ideas about fresh air having a full system of opening lights, backed up extra floor and ceiling inlets and exits for fresh air.
Form and colour were also thought to an influence on the mind as well as the body. Florence Nightingale wrote in 1883
'The effect in sickness of beautiful objects and especially of colour is hardly at all appreciated…Variety of form and brilliancy of colour in objects presented to patients are actually means of recovery.'
The design for Leeds General infirmary by Giles Gilbert Scott is one of the most decorative buildings of this era in gothic style. It replaced an earlier hospital and was built in 1864-8 with accommodation for 296 patients.
The LGI is now part of the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, the largest trust in the country, that is developing a heritage and archive department to document the history. An arts programme, Tonic, provides a programme of art and performance activities throughout the trust.


Architecture:
Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was the architect for the hospital developed between 1864-8. Designed in gothic style with hood mouldings, plate tracery and spiky skyline, steeply pitched gables and roofs, it is a decorative and colourful building.
The sloping site created a complex plan in which the administrative and outpatients activities were located on the lower ground level. The plan involved a central arcaded courtyard with staff accommodation to west and chapel to the east, with ward pavilions extending to the north and south. Originally the court was open but this was covered by the time of the opening in 1868 with a high, glazed iron structure- a winter garden. The central court became tennis court then outpatients waiting room. The roof was removed in 1911 and the court finally became a garden. These changes may reflect some uncertainty and ambiguity about the nature of any courtyard at the heart of the hospital: on the one hand the roof prevented the free flow of air around the separate ward blocks and on the other it enabled extension within the existing plan form.