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Author Archives: Harriet Richardson
The Architecture of Isolation
Recently I wrote a short post on this topic for the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain for their website. This is a slightly revised and extended version of that piece. Interior view of NHS Nightingale, London. Photographed on … Continue reading
William Goldring and Asylums — The Gardens Trust
This blog post on asylum landscape design was posted recently on the Gardens Trust site. I sympathise on the difficulties of researching the gardens and grounds of hospitals, it can be very difficult to find much information in the surviving … Continue reading
Posted in asylums
Tagged Hellingly Hospital, Landscape Design, Napsbury Hospital, Rauceby Hospital
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The Falkirk Ward
The Falkirk Ward was designed by the Department of Health for Scotland in the 1960s. It was an experimental ward, a prototype to be tested for its efficiency and flexibility. If successful, it was to be rolled out in the … Continue reading
Randolph Wemyss Memorial Hospital, Fife
Randolph Wemyss Memorial Hospital, photographed in October 2019 © H. Richardson The cottage hospital at Buckhaven opened on 28 August 1909. It was designed by Alexander Tod of Kirkcaldy for Lady Eva Wemyss in memory of her husband, Randolph Gordon Erskine Wemyss, … Continue reading
Victoria Hospital, Fife
Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy, photographed October 2019. Looking north towards the 1960s tower block with the new ward block to the right. © H. Richardson Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy, and Queen Margaret’s Hospital, Dunfermline, are the two main hospitals in Fife, serving … Continue reading
Two Highland Hospitals.
Only a few miles apart, there are two small hospital buildings both designed by W. C. Joass. Both hospitals are particularly fine examples of Victorian cottage hospital architecture in Scotland, typical of the diminutive scale of the earliest hospitals of … Continue reading
Brooksby House, Largs. From Yachting Residence to Seaside Convalescent Home.
For many decades, Brooksby House was the convalescent home for Glasgow’s Victoria Infirmary. The Governors of the Infirmary purchased this substantial villa by the sea-front at Largs in 1896 and it opened the following year with accommodation for 24 patients. Postcard … Continue reading
Posted in convalescent homes, Scottish Hospitals
Tagged Ayrshire, Brooksby House, convalescent homes, Largs, Scottish Architecture
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The Hospitals on Islay
Islay Hospital, Bowmore. View of the ward block and main entrance from the west. Photographed in May 2019, © H. Richardson There have been three hospitals on Islay: a poor law institution that provided medical care for paupers and in … Continue reading
Brechin Infirmary and St Drostan’s House
Prospect of Brechin (detail), by John Slezer from Theatrum Scotiae, 1693. Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland On a gloriously sunny day in April I visited Brechin, primarily to see the cathedral with its extraordinary round tower, but … Continue reading
The Western Isles Hospital, Stornoway, and its forebears
Memorial stained-glass panel in the Western Isles Hospital, depicting the Lewis Hospital on the right and the County Hospital to the left, both closed when the new general hospital opened. © H. Richardson The Outer Hebrides are served by one general … Continue reading
