architecture

Stratheden Hospital

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Stratheden Hospital from the south, photographed in October 2014 by MacKlly (image reproduced under CC0 1.0 Universal)

Stratheden Hospital is administered by NHS Fife as a community hospital caring for patients with mental health issues. Most of the patients’ accommodation lies within the grounds of the Victorian hospital complex (pictured above), which was originally built as the Fife and Kinross District Asylum for Pauper Lunatics. The old buildings, deemed no longer fit for purpose, have been lying empty for the last three years or more, and are not designated as listed buildings.

Photograph taken in May 2001 © RCAHMS Aerial Photography

The aerial photograph from 2001 shows the site as it was then, with the historic core on the top right. New buildings added to the site in recent years have been built in the open space to the east – just below the original buildings on the photograph. The newest addition to the site is an 8-bed Intensive Psychiatric Care Unit (IPCU). On 6 July 2015 work was officially commenced on its construction, with Nicola Sturgeon joining the NHS Fife chief executive Paul Hawkins in a sod-cutting ceremony.

25-inch OS map of 1893, reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

The oldest buildings on the site were designed in 1860 by Peddie and Kinnear, as the district pauper asylum for Fife and Kinross. The site had been acquired from a Mr R. Wilson of Cupar, comprising a large estate around a house named Retreat – rather apt. But the house seems to have been demolished to make way for the farm steading. The architects were awarded the commission following a limited competition in which Brown and Wardrop were the only other architects invited to submit plans. Peddie and Kinnear had themselves unsuccessfully competed for the design of the Inverness District Asylum the year before, and in 1860 produced plans for Haddington District Asylum. Earlier they had designed a number of poorhouses, and so were well versed in the complex requirements of such large institutions.

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 elevations and sections

Building work suffered various delays and only began in 1863, with the foundation stone being laid in August 1864. The delays were largely due to Lord Kinnoul whose amendment to the Lunacy (Scotland) Act allowed pauper lunatics to be accommodated in poorhouses. He was energetic in lobbying the Lunacy Board in an attempt to dissuade them from proceeding with the Fife asylum until the Bill was passed in 1863. However, the accommodation for lunatics generally provided in poorhouses was unsuitable and insufficient. As soon as Stratheden was completed the Commissioners in Lunacy withdrew the licence to keep lunatics in Dunfermline Poorhouse.

Extract from the 6-inch OS map, revised in 1938, reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland. The map shows the original block on the north side of the complex which by this date had been considerably extended.

The asylum was described in the Commissioners’ annual reports as being of ‘plain and economical construction’ with a separate house for the Medical Superintendent and a porter’s lodge. In 1865 it was noted that: ‘the whole of the main building is roofed in excepting the centre block, containing the dining‑hall, amusement room, etc, the roof of which has been delayed in consequence of the iron beams required for its support having been lost at sea.’

Stratheden Hospital was opened without ceremony on 4 July 1866 for 200 hundred pauper lunatics; the Fife Herald noted that the first patient to be admitted was a woman ‘who stared considerably at the sight of the palatial display and who had ultimately to be forcibly introduced to a home in everything but name’. Just before the asylum opened it was inspected by two of the Commissioners in Lunacy, an event that was reported in the Fife Herald with considerable local pride. The warm sunshine and strong breeze of wind on that late June day meant that the means of ventilation were well exercised, ‘imparting to the asylum a fresh and delightful odour, such as is only to be found in green fields and rural scenes’. [Fife Herald, 21 June 1866]

Upper-floor plan by Peddie & Kinnear, one of a set of plans by the architects in the NMRS collection

Fife and Kinross asylum was up-to-date in its provision of a mix of single rooms and larger dormitories and day rooms for the patients. It boasted no architectural display, efficiency with economy being the requirements of the Lunacy Board. With a frontage of 410 feet, the main building was symmetrical, males occupying the east, the females the west side. The end wings were for infirmary and refractory patients on the ground floor with quiet and convalescent patients above. At the centre was the dining-hall and a recreation hall that was also to serve as a chapel, the usual arrangement at this date. On the north side, the two-storey range at the centre contained the main entrance, reception rooms, a laboratory and staff offices.

Amongst later additions, a hospital block was added by Kinnear and Peddie in 1891 and a large new nurses’ home, designed by Andrew Haxton was built in 1929. [Sources: Commissioners in Lunacy, Annual Report, 1865: RCAHMS drawings collection]

King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women, Perth, Western Australia

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The original home of the King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women, Perth, in a former Industrial School designed in the ‘Federation Free Style’ by Robert Haddon © State Library of Western Australia

This caught my eye earlier in the week, a piece that was written by Emma Wynne, based on research by Richard Offen from Heritage Perth, on a Women’s Hospital in Australia. [ref 1] The photograph shows the newly opened hospital around 1916. It was the culmination of years of effort to have a dedicated maternity hospital for Perth. In 1909, the women’s service guild held a meeting in the Government House Ballroom attended by 400 people to discuss the establishment of a such a hospital, and a committee formed to work towards that end. The committee included Edith Cowan, Mary Molloy [the wife of the Lord Mayor], Deborah Hackett and James Battye.

In 1913, the Public Health Annual Report noted the suggestion that rather than building the proposed hospital, a new ward should be added to Perth Public Hospital [now Royal Perth Hospital]. This was rejected by the committee, and  Edith Cowan suggested that if finances were the delaying factor, then perhaps the Government Industrial School building in Subiaco should be used. With the backing of the Minister for Health this was agreed. With accommodation for 20 patients and staff the Hospital was officially opened.in July 1916.

There was still a need to increase ward accommodation at the hospital, and early on a galvanised shed was brought to the site from Coolgardie, formerly a TB ward. After the First World War additions  were made to the building to cope with increasing number of patients. patients.

The New Art Deco Building 1939, designed by A E Clare of the Public Works Department © State Library of Western Australia

In the 1930s planning began on the art deco expansion to the hospital, which still forms the main entrance to the hospital today. The state heritage register documents state that the hospital’s matron travelled overseas to research the design. Among the noteworthy features incorporated in the new building were a central heating system, air conditioning, sound absorbing ceilings, a reserve auxiliary for electrical lighting and power, controlled lighting, and a public address system for paging doctors. It was officially opened on December 6, 1939 by the minister for health, Alexander Panton, who said it was part of what was intended to become the best maternity hospital in Australia.

King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women – Block A, Main Entrance by Kollision (Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons)
The Nurses Home, 1952, designed by Len Walters © State Library of Western Australia

In the 1950s new nurses quarters were built and in 1979 the multistorey B block was also built. In 1988 the hospital’s first building, the old industrial school, was renamed Harvey House in honour of the hospital’s first matron Eleanor Harvey. It is now used as the WA Medical Museum. The nurses quarters have since been converted to clinics and offices, as staff no longer live on site. In 2002 the whole site was placed on the state heritage register, but continues to operate as Western Australia’s only tertiary women’s hospital.

former Murthly Hospital, Perthshire

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MURTHLY HOSPITAL   Built as the Perth District Asylum, it was designed by Edward & Robertson, of Dundee and opened in 1864. It was the second district asylum to open in Scotland. Five architects submitted plans from which the Dundee architects were chosen. David Smart designed the Italianate administration block at the centre. In 1885 a cottage hospital was added on the site which later became the nurses’ home. In 1894 two villas were built which were an early attempt at providing accommodation for pauper patients on the colony system. They were named after the pioneers in psychiatry Pinel and Tuke. The hospital closed in 1984.

aerial photograph taken in 2001  © RCAHMS

Now largely demolished and the site developed as a housing estate called Druids Park (inspired by the stone circle on the eastern side of the site).

south front photographed in 2001 © RCAHMS ref SC 785510

A few of the old hospital buildings have been retained. The administrative block on the north side of the asylum , though considerably altered, which is the only part to be listed (at grade C). Although I previously stated that this was designed by David Smart, and elsewhere it has been dated to 1871, I have been unable to find – or re-find – any evidence of such an addition at that time, and the wing seems to appear on the first edition OS Map, so I am inclined to conclude that it is a part of the original building. (A possible caveat is an advertisement for tenders for the erection of additional offices at the asylum but this is not until 1893) Also surviving are the two villas, Pinel and Tuke, built in 1894 and of similar design by David Smart.

These are historically of great significance, being particularly early examples of detached villas for patients added to asylums. The medical superintendent’s house, to the east of the site, appears to have survived, if so this is also one of the earliest buildings on the site, being part of the first phase of building. Lastly the nurses’ home, added in 1885 by David Smart, which has been incorporated into Stewart Lodge, on the south-west side of the site.

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Staff houses photographed in 2001 by RCAHMS

Perthshire Advertiser gave a list of the contractors for the original building, and noted that the stone for the rubble work was from Arbroath, while the hewn stone, used for dressings and quoins, was from Bannockburn. 

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Lennox Castle

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Lennox Castle in 2014, photographed by Robert Adam at RCAHMS One of a series of aerial photographs of the site

Lennox Castle has been on the Buildings at Risk register for Scotland since 1992, the website provides a good summary of the history of the building and the site. Rather wonderfully, the Book of Lennox Castle produced for the opening ceremony of the hospital in 1936 has been scanned and put online by S J McLaughlin, who has charted the history of the hospital and includes numerous photographs. Records from the hospital are deposited with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Archives.

An extraordinary aerial photo  posted early in 2014 shows part of the site after the patients’ blocks had been demolished. In 2006 planning permission was granted for this area to be developed as the Celtic FC training centre. Below is an aerofilms photograph, taken from the north in 1953, showing Lennox Castle on the right, and the former female division to the left. But this was only a part of the hospital site overall. The OS map from 1958 shows the other sections of the hospital. At this date the blocks to the north-east formed a separate maternity hospital.

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Aerial photograph 1953 in the collection of RCAHMS

The aerial photograph of that section of the hospital (below) was taken in 1953. It was turned into a maternity unit in 1941, as part of the Emergency Medical Scheme during the Second World War and continued as such until 1964. All the buildings were demolished to make way for a housing development, for which planning permission was granted in 2006.

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Aerial photograph 1953 in the collection of RCAHMS. This shows the former male division which became an emergency hospital during the Second World War and partly used as a Maternity Hospital.

Below is a revised version of the piece I wrote on the hospital around 1990. I remember the hospital quite well, it was one that was particularly impressive, architecturally and for its setting. It was quite a shock to see what has happened since.

LENNOX CASTLE HOSPITAL, LENNOXTOWN   Lennox Castle, situated at the western edge of the hospital complex, was built between 1837 and 1841 to designs by David Hamilton.

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Lennox Castle, before it became a roofless ruin, photographed by RCAHMS

It was designed in a picturesque neo‑Norman style with castellated and battered walls, and an imposing porte‑cochere. In the 1980s there were some fine interiors on the principal floor but the building had suffered badly from subsidence. The external stonework was also in very poor condition near the ground and had been roughly patched up with concrete rendering.

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View of the dining-room ceiling at Lennox Castle, photograph from RCAHMS, nd.

In April 1925 Glasgow Parish Council resolved to build a new Mental Deficiency Institution under the provisions of the 1913 Act. In 1927 Lennox Castle and its vast estate were purchased, and plans prepared for what was to be the largest and best equipped hospital of this type in Britain. It was to provide 1,200 beds at a cost of 1.25 million. Work began in 1929 to designs by Wylie, Shanks & Wylie. The hospital was finally completed in 1936. The site was divided into five sections; a male division, a female division, a hospital section, married staff houses and the engine house. The male and female sections each consisted of ten dormitory blocks for 60 patients. These were split into two main wards with 28 beds and two side rooms with two beds, together with a day‑room and sanitary annexe. Meals were to be provided in two central dining‑halls capable of seating 600 patients each. Above the dining‑hall, accommodation was provided for unmarried male attendants.

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The Assembly Hall, Lennox Castle Hospital, photographed around 1990 © Harriet Richardson

Lennox Castle itself was adapted into a nurses’ home. There was also a central Assembly Hall for all the patients, it contained a large hall with a stage and equipment for cinema shows as well as some administrative offices. All the new blocks were built of brick and incorporated many innovative features, in particular the heating system which operated on a system of underground tunnels.

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The dining-hall block, Lennox Castle Hospital, photographed about 1990 © Harriet Richardson

There was a considerable variety of plan and composition which added interest to the site. The Assembly Hall and dining‑halls featured arched windows on the ground floor and each had a central bold entrance bay. On the Assembly hall this comprised a grand arch rising the full‑height of the building and framing the porch, and on the dining‑hall blocks the door was set into an arch, which in turn was in a tall gabled centrepiece. The varied roof-line also added interest. A charming octagonal tea‑room in two tiers with plenty of windows, echoed the tea pavilion at Glen‑o‑Dee Hospital.

Lennox Castle Maternity Hospital and Institution, from the OS map published in 1958. Reproduced with permission of the National Library of Scotland.

During the Second World War the male division (on the map below) was taken over by the government for use as an Emergency Hospital and the male patients were moved to six of the villas in the female division and hutted ward blocks that were constructed near the Castle. Although intended for air raid casualties, the emergency hospital was not needed and so the beds were made available to relieve pressure on hospital accommodation in Glasgow. A post-confinement maternity unit was established at the site in 1941, initially in one villa consisting of three wards, plus another villa that was reserved for gynaecology cases.

The Maternity Hospital from the OS map revised in 1966, after it had ceased to take maternity patients. Reproduced with permission of the National Library of Scotland.

Although Lennox Castle was twenty miles from Glasgow, the maternity provision here, with its beautiful rural surroundings, proved very popular. Initial space for 30 patients was soon increased to 60 by using another villa. A certain number of women each week were transferred after confinement from one or other of Glasgow Corporation’s maternity units. The increasing demand for maternity beds in Glasgow was becoming harder to meet. In 1942 the total number of maternity beds available in voluntary and municipal institutions was 461, including ante-natal beds. In addition there were about 150 in nursing homes, and 44 beds for unmarried girls in four private homes. An extension of 32 beds was made at the Eastern District Hospital, and under the government evacuation scheme beds for expectant mothers were available at Haddo House, Peebles, Kilmacolm and Airthrey Castle.

Further beds were made over for maternity cases at Lennox Castle during and after the war. In 1960 work began on a new maternity hospital at Yorkhill, and additional beds were  provided at Redlands, and Robroyston Hospitals, and pavilions at Belvedere Fever were converted to maternity use, but there were still not enough beds to meet demand. Lennox Castle continued to provide maternity beds until 1964 when the Queen Mother’s Hospital at Yorkhill was completed. [Sources: Glasgow Corporation, The Book of Lennox Castle, Glasgow, c.1936. Glasgow Herald, 15 May 1936, p.12; 29 Sept. 1936, (ill.): RCAHMS, Inventory, Stirling, Vol.2, p.358.]

Ayrshire Central Hospital

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‘Deco and Memories’ by Trawts1 Photograph taken in 2008. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

AYRSHIRE CENTRAL HOSPITAL, IRVINE   Comparable to both Inverurie and Hawkhead Hospitals, though lacking the flair of Tait’s buildings at the latter, these three hospitals constitute a interesting and important group of local authority infectious diseases hospitals built in the international modern style, adopting bold cubic shapes and flat roofs.

Ayrshire Central Admin block, photographed in 1997 by RCAHMS

Ayrshire Central, designed in 1935 by William Reid, the County Architect, has a strong impact with its brilliant white finish enhanced by good maintenance and sympathetic extensions. The hospital was built to replace the old, small infectious diseases hospitals scattered over the county, and to meet the local authority’s new responsibility for maternity cases. The site was split into two halves to cater for the different functions. The infectious diseases section opening in 1941, and the maternity section in 1944. The specialities within the hospital altered when cases of tuberculosis declined and hospital confinements increased. Eventually, the infectious section became a general area with the ward pavilions adapted to various new functions.

The nurses’ home, in a central position between the two sections of the hospital, was designed on a U-plan and is a particularly pleasing small-scale example of its type. It has an almost Italian feel with the arcaded ground floor. The glazing and contemporary fire escapes are particularly notable details. [Sources: Ayrshire and Arran Health Board, Souvenir Brochure of Opening, 1941, site plan: Architect & Building News, 18 June 1937, p.359]

Revisions:

By 1933 Ayrshire County Council were considering the provision of a 70-bed maternity hospital to take the place of Seafield Maternity Home in Ayr. Plans for the hospital were drawn up in the office of William Reid, the County Architect, but it seems to have been Robert Govan Lindsay who was responsible for the design. From 1921 he worked for Ayrshire Education Authority which was taken over by the County Council in 1929, here he gained a broad experience in designing municipal institutional buildings. The plans were approved and work commenced in 1935 comprising 250 beds for infectious diseases cases, 70 beds for maternity cases and 46 children’s cots. In June 1937 The Architect and Building News reported that Reid was the architect of ‘new quarters for certain staff members’, costing £11,000. Perhaps this was the Nurses’ Home, which differed somewhat in style from the other buildings on the site. 

The hospital was nearing completion in 1938, but costs had risen dramatically, that and the outbreak of war sufficiently explain the slowness in completing this hospital. Despite the war, there was an official opening for the hospital in October 1941. The cost was given as £400,000 and the number of beds provided had been increased to 436. [Annual Reports, Department of Health for Scotland: Sunday Post, 19 Oct 1941]

Aerial photograph of the site taken in 2014 by RCAHMS. The original blocks are to the left of the picture. Bare ground can be seen marking the sites of demolished pavilions at the centre of the site.

Ayrshire Central Hospital continues to provide  young disabled rehabilitation services, and has a number of assessment beds for Elderly Mental Health Services.  In 2010-12 the grade B listed buildings on the site were refurbished and modernised, although one block, the original maternity section, has been demolished.  A new General Outpatient Department and Rehabilitation Centre has been added to the site, and  in 2014 work commenced on a new 206-bed, acute mental health and community hospital for NHS Ayrshire and Arran designed by Lawrence McPherson Associates. Balfour Beatty are the building contractors (they were awarded the contract after ‘a robust procurement process’).[ref 1] Opening is planned for 2016. 

Featured

Airthrey Castle Maternity Hospital

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Ten years ago, this was my very first post. I have revised it and added some photographs that I took in 2018 when I was staying on the University of Sterling Campus.

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‘Airthrey Castle against the Blue’  by Amy Palko photographed in 2007, and licensed under  CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The hospital was opened at the beginning of the Second World War, occupying the mansion house designed by Robert Adam in his castle style. The estates of Airthrey Castle were built on to form Stirling University. Adam drew up designs for Airthrey Castle in 1791, but was not involved with its construction. Building work was supervised by Thomas Russell of Seton.

Airthrey Castle on the 25-inch OS map revised in 1860 CC-BY (NLS)

The entrance front was rebuilt in 1891 to designs by David Thomson for Donald Graham, the chief partner in the firm of William Graham & Company, East India Merchants, of Glasgow, who had purchased the estate in 1889. Graham died in January 1901 of erysipelas, the house remaining in possession of his wife. In 1924 the shipowner Charles Donaldson leases the estate. He died at the castle in December 1938.

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Engraved view of Airthrey Castle before the late-nineteenth-century alterations, from Canmore

At the outbreak of the Second World War the Estate was acquired by the Ministry of Health as an Emergency Maternity Hospital administered by Stirling County Council, taking patients evacuated from Stirling, Glasgow and Clydebank. In mid-September 1939 the Stirling Observer reported that the castle was being fitted out with 25 to 30 beds (in the 1950s and ’60s it had 30 beds). By the beginning of November 1939 there had already been 40 patients at Airthrey Castle. The Allan Water Hotel in Bridge of Allan had also been taken over as a hospital for expectant mothers at the start of the war, but this also took patients from Dumbartonshire. The evacuation scheme had been carried out in just two days following the outbreak of the war. By January 1940 the Allan Water Hotel had been returned to its owners, its use as a hospital having been discontinued. The hotel had initially been kept in reserve. The need for large numbers of beds for the evacuation of Glasgow hospitals that had been anticipated at the start of the war had not materialised. Airthrey Castle was proving sufficient.

Garden front of Airthrey Castle, photographed in August 2018 ©️ H. Blakeman

The castle remained in the ownership of the Graham family until after the war, having been put up for sale in November 1944. The advertisements for the sale noted that the Castle and ‘certain outbuildings’ with garden were temporarily occupied by the Local Authority as a War Emergency Maternity Hospital’.[Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 4 Nov . 1944, p.2.] The castle and estate were still being advertised fro sale in January 1945, when a large advertisement was place in Country Life. [Country Life, 12 Jan. 1945, p.8.] After the war, in November 1945, it was reported that there had been 2,050 births at Airthrey Castle since it opened. Sadly three mothers died during that time.[Falkirk Herald, 24 Nov. 1945, p.5.]

View of the entrance front, photographed in August 2018 ©️ H. Blakeman

In March 1946 Stirling County Council decided to purchase Airthrey Castle and and part of the estate in order that the much-needed maternity hospital should remain open.[Falkirk Herald, 30 March 1946, p.5.] The purchase had been completed by the end of October that year. With the foundation of the National Health Service in 1948, the hospital passed to the Western Regional Health Board. A nurses’ home was built in 1953 to the south-east of the house. This L-shaped, two-storey, flat-roofed building appears has survived and was in use as a surgery/health centre for the University in the 1980s. 

Winter garden or conservatory to the rear of the castle, photographed in August 2018 ©️ H. Blakeman

In 1965 arrangements were made for the transfer to the new University of Stirling of the Airthrey Castle Estate, although it remained in use as a maternity hospital until 1968-9. The hospital was replaced by new maternity units in Paisley and Stirling. The castle was listed in 1973 category B.

Airthrey Castle on the 25-inch OS map revised in 1914 showing the alterations to the house and the addition of the conservatory, CC-BY (NLS)
Airthrey Castle Maternity Hospital on the large-scale OS map revised in 1959 showing the addition of the nurses’ wing to the east and a tennis court in the grounds. CC-BY (NLS)
Nurses’ accommodation added to the castle, with the side of the conservatory to the left, photographed in August 2018 ©️ H. Blakeman
Two views of the rear of the castle showing the nurses’ accommodation wing, photographed in August 2018 ©️ H. Blakeman
Airthrey Castle, photographed in August 2018 ©️ H. Blakeman

Sources unless otherwise given in the text above: Edinburgh Evening News, 23 Jan 1901: Dundee Courier, 1 Jan 1924: Western Daily Press, 8 Dec 1938: Stirling Observer, 14 Sept. 1939 p.3: The Scotsman, 3 Nov 1939, p.5: Dundee Courier, 15 Jan 1940: Dundee Evening Telegraph, 21 Feb 1944: PP ‘Report of the Department of Health for Scotland…’ 1953 c.9107: PP ‘Scottish Home and Health Department Review of the Hospital Plan for Scotland’ 1966 c.2877: OS maps.

Further Reading: N. Reid,  ‘Airthrey Castle Maternity Hospital 1939-1948’, and E. Rose ‘Airthrey Castle Maternity Hospital 1948-1969’ in Report of Proceedings of the Society of the Scottish History of Medicine, 1988-9, pp.14-17