View from SW Digital image of E 8549 CN

Description View from SW Digital image of E 8549 CN

Date 21/4/2001

Catalogue Number SC 785509

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content Murthly Hospital, Perth & Kinross, from the south-west (closed 1984 and now demolished) This impressive building, set within wooded grounds, was designed on an H-plan with a long south-facing front (seen here) forming the cross arm of the 'H'. The central administration block was 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. Mid-19th-century asylums were commonly constructed on an E- or H-plan, both of which proved to be practical designs maintaining the emphasis on supervision of patients from key positions. The central block in the cross arm of the 'H' contained the necessary public rooms - workrooms, offices for administration, the matron and superintendent's apartments, and the recreation and dining halls. The flanking wings accommodated, in dormitories and single rooms, the patients who were classified according to sex, class and complaint. 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.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/785509

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap