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Detail of cupola and viewing gallery Digital image of E 8557 CN
SC 785517
Description Detail of cupola and viewing gallery Digital image of E 8557 CN
Date 21/4/2001
Catalogue Number SC 785517
Category On-line Digital Images
Scope and Content Observation Tower, Murthly Hospital, Perth & Kinross (closed 1984 and now demolished) This large octagonal timber cupola with a slated roof rises from the top of the central administration block of the hospital. It was built to serve as an observation tower, and has pairs of windows in each side of the viewing gallery. Its large octagonal turret has louvred sides and a domed roof topped by a weathervane. Patients were normally kept indoors in locked wards but were encouraged to exercise and take supervised walks in the grounds on a daily basis in summer. Airing courts, secure courtyards where patients could exercise 24 hours a day, were also available for those patients whose behaviour was noisy and disruptive. Exercise, along with exposure to 'the sun and the air', was regarded as therapeutic and a positive treatment for mania. The viewing gallery allowed the hospital attendants to observe the patients at all times. 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/785517
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