View of main block from N Digital image of D 25685 cn

Description View of main block from N Digital image of D 25685 cn

Date 28/1/1997

Catalogue Number SC 776754

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content Female Hospital, Dingleton Hospital, Dingleton Road, Melrose, Scottish Borders, from the north (latterly known as Glentress and Traquair wards which closed 2001) This range of buildings, linked by a corridor to the female wing of the main asylum, was designed by Sydney Mitchell & Wilson to accommodate female patients. It provided day rooms, bathrooms, a dining room, an isolation ward, a padded room, an observation ward, a recreation room, sleeping accommodation for patients in dormitories and single rooms, and nurses' rooms on the upper floor. The range consisted of single- and two-storeyed inter-connecting units constructed in similar sandstone and in a similar architectural style as the main hospital block with piended (hipped) roofs and timber-bracketed eaves. Mitchell's original windows, chimneys and ventilation shafts, however, have now been removed or replaced but his architectural flair is still evident, particularly in the bay window (centre) and the exuberant spiral iron fire escape stair that descends from the upper floor (left). Mitchell's new female hospital opened in January 1899. The interior was designed with great attention to detail, and painted in bright colours as this was considered therapeutic for lunatic patients. The furnishings throughout were constructed from American yellow pine, and all the angles in the rooms and corridors were rounded, as this was again considered to be soothing to the troubled mind. The bathrooms and toilets had unusual cement floors tinted red, and walls lined with white ceramic tiles. Great care was taken to ensure adequate ventilation, and the ceilings carried tubes to expel 'foul' air through the roof. An external 72m-long corridor, with an open-air veranda roofed in glass, linked the building with the dining hall in the main asylum. Dingleton Hospital, designed by the architects, Wardrop & Brown, opened in 1872 as the District Asylum for Melrose. It provided accommodation for 200 patients from the counties of Roxburgh, Berwick and Selkirk and replaced the private asylum at Milholme House in Musselburgh which had been licensed for pauper lunatics on a temporary basis until the new asylum at Melrose was completed. The site was substantially developed between 1895 and 1905 when a new hospital block for female patients, new recreational and dining facilities, and a new male hospital block were added to designs by the architectural firm, Sydney Mitchell & Wilson. In 1936 a nurses' home, designed by Tarbolton & Ochterlony, was constructed in the grounds. The hospital closed in 2001. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/776754

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap