General view of entrance front of Craig House

Description General view of entrance front of Craig House

Date 1895

Collection Records of Bedford Lemere and Company, photographers, London, England

Catalogue Number BL 13222

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 701972, ED 12027 PO, B 64292

Scope and Content Craighouse Mental Asylum, Craighouse Road, Edinburgh, from the east (latterly the Royal Edinburgh Hospital and presently part of Napier University) Craighouse Mental Asylum, a huge chateau designed by the architect, Sydney Mitchell, was built in 1889-94 as new hospital premises for the Royal Edinburgh Asylum in an imposing setting on the north slope of Easter Craiglockhart Hill. Harry Bedford Lemere was commissioned to photograph the asylum in 1895. The building, in rough-faced red sandstone with warm yellow facings, has much rich and varied detail. Circular towers (left), in the style of François I, form the end of dormitory blocks, and tall, French chimneys have divisions between flues instead of pots. The porch, in the north-east re-entrant angle, is diagonally set. Craighouse was designed exclusively for private paying patients, and had the appearance, both inside and out, of a fashionable hydropathic hotel. It was designed with a variety of 'uplifting' environments, and set in 60 acres of woodland with magnificent views north over the Firth of Forth to the hills of Fife. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Medium Glass

External Reference Box 23

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