Oblique aerial view centred on the hospital and offices, taken from the S.

Description Oblique aerial view centred on the hospital and offices, taken from the S.

Date 1/5/2001

Collection RCAHMS Aerial Photography

Catalogue Number D 76932 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 755749, SC 1688975

Scope and Content Aerial view of Royal Dundee Liff Hospital, Dundee This splendid pink sandstone hospital was designed on a symmetrical plan, with an advanced three-bayed, three-storeyed centrepiece with tall ground-floor windows, and two-storeyed wings that stretch out on each side. The long, south-facing front overlooks well laid out gardens and lawns that slope gently down to the farmland beyond. The rear of the building has two inner courtyards, one of which contains the boiler house, a later addition, and its tapering, red brick chimney, painted black at its head. The private wing (now named Gowrie House), completed in 1901, lies to the south surrounded by trees within the privacy of its own grounds. The building is constructed on an E-plan, with circular corner turrets and rich detailing. The main hospital building has a central administration block that originally contained the kitchens, recreation hall and chapel. The wings contained the dormitories and single bedrooms for patients, with the female patients on one side and the male patients on the other. A house was built in the grounds for the medical superintendent who had overall responsibility for the day-to-day running of the asylum and for the male patients. A matron had responsibility for the female patients. Initially, the hospital was designed to accommodate only pauper patients, but soon after opening it was adapted to take all classes of patients until 1898 when a separate, self-contained house for private patients was opened in the grounds. Royal Dundee Liff Hospital, a huge, imposing Baronial-style hospital designed in 1877-82 by the Dundee firm of architects, Charles Edward & Thomas S Robertson, was built to replace the Royal Lunatic Asylum in Dundee. It was generally known as West Green Asylum after its location, and, although designed as a pauper asylum, opened with accommodation for both pauper and private patients. In 1898 Thomas S Robertson designed a magnificent, self-contained building for private patients, which opened in 1901. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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