Rear view of boiler house and laundry from W

Description Rear view of boiler house and laundry from W

Date 17/11/1993

Catalogue Number SC 776413

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of C 17847

Scope and Content Boiler House and Laundry, Hartwood Hospital, Shotts, North Lanarkshire (now closed and mainly demolished) This group of single-storeyed buildings, containing the hospital's laundry and boiler house, was constructed at the rear of the main hospital block in the same cream-coloured sandstone and with the same Scots Baronial-style detailing as the main hospital block. Both buildings have grey slated roofs and crowstepped gables, and ornamental Victorian ventilators arranged at regular intervals along the roof ridges. The coal-fired boiler house heated the hospital through a system of hot-water pipes, and supplied the adjacent the laundry with hot water for washing. The laundry was staffed with a workforce of female patients. The hospital encouraged the employment of patients in 'honest labour and occupations' and regarded employment as having 'a strong and unmistakable beneficial influence in promoting physical and mental restoration.' Women, however, were restricted to working in the laundry, in the kitchens or doing general household duties in the wards. Male patients, on the other hand, were encouraged to take up outdoor work, including road making and helping in the construction of the hospital's sports facilities. Men were also employed on the home farm when it opened in 1897, or had occupations as tailors, shoemakers, joiners, bakers and gardeners. These occupations all helped to make the hospital a self-contained and self-sufficient community, and had the purpose of helping patients be supportive of each other within that community. Hartwood Hospital, a large Baronial-style building with imposing twin towers, was designed by the architect, John L Murray of Biggar (d.1909), and occupied one of the largest hospital sites in Scotland. It was built as the District Asylum for Lanark and opened in 1895 with accommodation for 500 lunatic patients. Between 1898 and 1916 additions included two large ward blocks, each linked to the rear of the main building by a covered corridor, a sanatorium for the isolation of patients suffering from tuberculosis, and a new admission hospital. In 1931 a new nurses' home, designed by the architect, James Lochhead (1870-1942), opened to the south of the complex, and in c.1935, a new site was developed at nearby Hartwood Hill in response to the growing need for accommodation for mentally handicapped adults. The hospital is now closed and mainly demolished. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/776413

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