Drawing showing plan and ground floor of proposed additions.

Description Drawing showing plan and ground floor of proposed additions.

Date 1824

Catalogue Number SC 755787

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of AND 61/9 P

Scope and Content Photographic copy of reconstruction drawings of William Burn's plans for proposed additions to Dundee Royal Lunatic Asylum, Albert Street, Dundee (replaced by the Royal Dundee Liff Hospital and now demolished) In 1824 William Burn proposed additions to Stark's original building, shown here in a reconstruction drawing by David Walker in 1952. Burn's additional end blocks are highlighted, and show his desire to maximise the accommodation of the asylum without disrupting Stark's original symmetrical plan. The proposed additions to both the ground and upper floors of the central block (centre) created more space for utility rooms such as a laundry, wash house, and store rooms. Burn also proposed the construction of end blocks to the single-storeyed, single-roomed side wings, and rebuilding them as more practical two-storeyed dormitory accommodation. When William Burn (1789-1870) took over as architect in 1824, the population of Dundee had grown dramatically since William Stark had drawn up his original plans to provide humane and comfortable housing for the city's lunatics. Although Burn's practice was in Edinburgh, he was already working in Dundee in the 1820s having been commissioned to repair and remodel many of the city's churches, and had commissions for a bank and a country house. Burn went on to design two other royal asylums - the Murray Royal Hospital in Perth in 1827, and the Crichton Royal in Dumfries in 1839. Dundee Royal Lunatic Asylum was designed in 1812 by the architect, William Stark (1770-1813), and built solely with public funds. By 1819 it had been granted a Royal Charter, and in 1824, following the death of Stark, the design of the building was taken over by the architect, William Burn (1789-1870). Burn modified Stark's plans to cope with the increased number of lunatics requiring admission, but his plans were curtailed in 1839 when only half of his designs had been completed. The asylum was replaced by Royal Dundee Liff Hospital in 1882, and the main part of the building survived into the 1960s as Barrie's Lemonade Factory before being demolished. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/755787

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