Ogee Dome

When the General Hospital was converted into residences, City & Country (C&C) reconstructed the mansard roof and ogee dome along Lower Guinea Street. This part of the General had been destroyed by high explosive and incendiary bombs on 6th December 1940. The reconstruction was a moot point as the wartime damage could be viewed to be part of the building’s history and something to be kept. Although missing for sixty years, the dome’s replacement formed part of the planning application in 2012. C&C were given planning permission to re-create the dome ‘exactly as it was in the 1853 design’ and use zinc cladding rather than the original lead.

C&C did not follow these conditions. They altered the dome’s dimensions and its windows, as is clear in our featured image – the left-hand dome photographed before the World War II bombing. The concave curve in the lower section of the dome should have been shallower and terminate at the eaves more abruptly. And the windows were far less prominent in C&C’s replacement. These departures from the 1853 design may have been necessary to allow for a more spacious residence inside the dome. However C&C used a synthetic cladding material instead of the approved zinc. In 2018 C&C were not asked to correct the dome’s dimensions but were required to use the approved zinc cladding.

In 2022 and 2023 C&C asked for more time to complete the re-cladding and were refused. In 2024 C&C decided to seek retrospective planning permission to clad with the synthetic material they had already used. Their application was refused in April this year. C&C have lodged an appeal with the Planning Inspectorate.

Redcliffe West Residents’ Association have urged the planning inspector to dismiss the C&C appeal pointing out that ‘the plastic membrane material wrinkles and undulates in warmer weather and direct sunlight.’ Friends of Bathurst Basin have also asked the Planning Inspectorate to dismiss the appeal. We pointed out that C&C ‘benefitted from the sale of additional residences following the decision to reconstruct the war-damaged roof and ogee dome. They have an obligation to retain the quality of the original structure.’

C&C are establishing a reputation of ignoring planning regulations. In a less important example, they were asked to remove advertising boards in Bathurst Basin by December 2019. They were finally removed in June 2024.