View of entrance front from NNE Digital image of E 8573

Description View of entrance front from NNE Digital image of E 8573

Date 21/4/2001

Catalogue Number SC 785527

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content Entrance Front, Murthly Hospital, Perth & Kinross, from the north-north-east (closed 1984 and now demolished) This two-storeyed rubble-built entrance front was designed in a simple Renaissance style by the architect, David Smart (1824-1914), and added c.1871 to the existing ward blocks designed by Edward & Robertson in 1864. This nine-bayed north elevation has advanced three-bayed end blocks, and a consoled and pedimented doorcase flanked by tripartite windows. The entrance front was designed on a grand scale in order to impress and to give new patients the belief that they were entering a prestigious institution rather like a grand country house. The institution was designed as 'a spacious building resembling the palace of a peer, airy and elevated, and elegant, surrounded by extensive and swelling grounds and gardens'. There were no bars or shutters at the windows, and the general appearance was welcoming, designed to accommodate patients for whose cure a stable, homely environment was crucial. 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/785527

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap