An elegant building designed by Clayton & Black in 1899 in Hove, initially used as a furniture depository for local department store Hanningtons, and subsequently by Legal & General as offices, has undergone a £35 m transformation into a private hospital for Spire Healthcare.
When Legal & General moved out in 2005, the building was left empty, but Spire Healthcare saw the potential to create ‘a first-rate private hospital with a unique identity’. Architect IBI Nightingale explains that, before the latest conversion (undertaken by Mansell, part of Balfour Beatty), the building had staggered, asbestos-lined floor plates, steep internal ramps, fixed service cores, and a ‘dreary décor’. The architects responded ‘with an ambitious remodelling and extension design’. IBI Nightingale said: “The new Montefiore Hospital re-establishes its presence within the streetscape. From the exterior, the building retains its original charm, with a new glazed entrance to draw patients into the foyer.”
