[5] Local architect John Richards provided his services for free, and designed a large brick building with a "architecturally domestic" style, a wing on either side, and a minimum of detail.

[4][12] Despite the city being regularly subjected to air raids during the Second World War, the hospital escaped damage.

[14] The move involved a fleet of ambulances shuttling patients from the Southernhay site to the new building over the course of over a week.

[15] Initially, there were complaints from night staff about the noise of gunfire from the nearby Wyvern Barracks, where the army shooting range was located.

[16] Two people died falling from height at the hospital within a year of it opening, the first being a workman on the outside of the building, and the second a nine-year old patient, who fell down a service shaft.

This first phase included an ophthalmic unit which replaced the West of England Eye Infirmary[4] which was previously on its own site on Magdalen Street in the city centre.