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

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

Date 1/5/2001

Collection RCAHMS Aerial Photography

Catalogue Number D 76934 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 755750, SC 1688977

Scope and Content Aerial view of Royal Dundee Liff Hospital, Dundee The main hospital building (top) was built on an E-plan, with a long, symmetrical, south-facing front, broken by advanced bays and wings. The imposing three-bayed, three-storeyed centrepiece contained the kitchens, recreation hall, matron's room and chapel, and the long two-storeyed wings contained the dormitories and single bedrooms for patients, with the female patients on one side and the male patients on the other. The rear of the hospital framed an inner courtyard on each side, with a tall, tapering, red brick chimney rising from the boiler house built as a later addition in the courtyard to the right. The private wing (now named Gowrie House) was completed in 1901 in a secluded setting to the south of the main building and within the privacy of its own tree-lined grounds. The building is constructed on an E-plan like the main hospital, but with much richer detailing and some excellent plasterwork and wood panelling inside. The main hospital was built as a pauper asylum with accommodation for 2,000 patients and staff. A separate section for private patients was planned, but this had to be abandoned initially due to serious financial difficulties. The hospital therefore had to accommodate all classes of patients together, with half of the accommodation for paupers given over to private patients, and the recreational hall partitioned off to provide extra dormitory space. Eventually, in 1898, Thomas S Robertson produced plans for the delayed private patients' block, which opened in 1901. 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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