Distant view from SSE Digital image of E 8545 CN
SC 785504
Description Distant view from SSE Digital image of E 8545 CN
Date 21/4/2001
Catalogue Number SC 785504
Category On-line Digital Images
Scope and Content Murthly Hospital, Perth & Kinross, from the south-south-east (closed 1984 and now demolished) This impressive hospital, set in extensive wooded grounds, was designed on an H-plan. At the centre of its long, south-facing front, which formed the cross arm of the 'H', is a two-storeyed, Italianate-style administration block, added c.1871 to designs by the architect, David Smart (1824-1914), and topped by a large timber cupola that served as an observation tower. Two-storeyed pavilion wings, designed by Edward & Robertson, accommodated male patients on one side and female patients on the other. In the mid-19th century, the problem of accommodating the growing numbers of pauper lunatics led to the setting up of a Royal Commission on Lunacy, and, in 1857, the passing of the Lunacy (Scotland) Act. This act divided Scotland into administrative districts, each with its own lunacy board which had the responsibility of providing accommodation for pauper lunatics, either by building a district asylum, or by organising accommodation within the existing asylums. The first district asylum to be built in Scotland opened in 1863 at Lochgilphead, and a spate of construction followed, with asylums established in Ayrshire, Fife & Kinross, Stirlingshire, Banffshire, Inverness-shire, Perthshire and East Lothian. The last district asylum was built in 1905 at Bangour. Murthly Hospital, designed by the Dundee firm of architects, Charles Edward & Thomas S Robertson, opened in 1864 as the Perth District Asylum for pauper lunatics. It was the second district asylum to open in Scotland, and in 1894 became one of the first to build villas within its grounds in an early attempt to provide accommodation for patients based on the colony or village system. The hospital closed in 1984 and is now demolished. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.
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Attribution: © RCAHMS
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