View of main block from NE Digital image of D 25692

Description View of main block from NE Digital image of D 25692

Date 28/1/1997

Catalogue Number SC 785497

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content Female Wing, Main Building, Dingleton Hospital, Dingleton Road, Melrose, Scottish Borders, from the north-east (closed 2001) This two-storeyed building, with timber-bracketed eaves and piended (hipped) roofs, formed the south wing of the main hospital, and was designed to accommodate female patients. The building's original chimneys and ventilation shafts have been removed, but some of the windows retain their original 12-paned glazing. The long exterior corridor, a later addition, was designed mainly to allow staff access to the central administrative block (out of picture on right) without the necessity of disturbing patients in the wards or day rooms. The sexes were segregated within the hospital, with male and female patients accommodated in separate wings. A medial line which ran through the middle of the recreation hall in the central block virtually cut the whole asylum into two portions, with the male and female sections structurally identical. Each wing had a day room, single rooms for patients, a large infirmary, small dormitories, and bathrooms and toilets. It also included two 'secluded' rooms which were used as disciplinary rooms for difficult patients. All the rooms were locked, and nurses had to carry bunches of keys in order to open and re-lock each door they passed through. Bell pulls in each room could be used to summon staff. 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/785497

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap