Interior-general view of Sitting Room in Craig House

Description Interior-general view of Sitting Room in Craig House

Date 1895

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

Catalogue Number SC 701979

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of B 64299

Scope and Content Drawing Room, Craighouse Mental Asylum, Craighouse Road, Edinburgh (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. The drawing room, one of the hospital's magnificent public rooms, was photographed in 1895 by the architectural photographer, Harry Bedford Lemere. This large, elegant room has a compartmentalised ceiling, and walls with moulded frames filled with a richly textured paper. It has a corner turret alcove (centre) with a small fireplace, and an arched bay-windowed recess (right). The chimneypiece has a mirrored overmantel with a broken triangular pediment. The drawing room, a light, airy room with 'attractive and harmonious décor', was where patients met regularly for group therapy. Craighouse was the most progressive asylum of is kind, encouraging exposure to sunlight and cheerful colours (as well as surroundings of the utmost comfort) as a form of therapy. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/701979

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap