Oblique aerial view centred on the hospital and chapel, taken from the ESE.

Description Oblique aerial view centred on the hospital and chapel, taken from the ESE.

Date 1/5/2001

Collection RCAHMS Aerial Photography

Catalogue Number SC 1690382

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of D 76978 CN

Scope and Content Aerial View, Murray Royal Hospital, Bridgend, Perth, Perth & Kinross Burn's original building (centre) was constructed on a T-plan, with a long, Neo-Classical, three-storeyed, south-facing front. Its central entrance pavilion is topped by an octagonal cupola, designed in 1864 by Dr A R Urquhart, the physician superintendent of the hospital, as an observation tower for surveying the grounds. Beyond the formal rectangular garden to the rear are two half-timbered Edwardian villas, designed in 1902 by Maclaren & Mackay, which flank a Scots Gothic-style chapel designed in 1901 by Dr Urquhart, and partly built by the patients. In stark contrast is the new nurses' home, a white rectangular box-like structure built in 1939 to the west (left) of the main hospital, and Perth's only large International Style building. The hospital was one of seven Royal Asylums built in Scotland between 1780 and 1840 designed to provide effective housing for Scotland's lunatic community. Burn based his design on Watson & Pritchett's published plan for the West Riding of Yorkshire Asylum, Wakefield, but modified the design as a T-plan rather than Watson & Pritchett's original plan of inter-linking crosses. The T-plan, a practical design that allowed supervision of the patients from key positions, consisted a large central administrative block containing 'the apartments of the superintendent and matron' as well as sitting rooms and a large room for recreation, and three-storeyed wings, one for males and the other for females, containing 'large, commodius and cheerful' bedrooms and dining rooms on either side. Murray Royal Hospital, designed by the architect, William Burn (1789-1870), opened in 1827 as the Murray Royal Lunatic Asylum with accommodation for 80 patients, officials and staff. The building maximised the opportunities of its pleasant open hillside site, and was further extended by Burn in 1833. In 1848 a nearby villa was acquired and modified as accommodation for 'higher class' patients, and in 1888 new infirmary wings were added to the rear of the main building. A chapel and two new villas to accommodate patients were completed in 1902, and a new nurses' home added in 1939. Further additions in the 1960s and 1970s included a new recreation hall, a geriatric unit and a day hospital. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/1690382

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