Detail of doorway in entrance front Digital image of E 8574

Description Detail of doorway in entrance front Digital image of E 8574

Date 21/4/2001

Catalogue Number SC 785529

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content Doorcase in Entrance Front, Murthly Hospital, Perth & Kinross (closed 1984 and now demolished) This simple but elegant doorcase, surmounted by a large triangular consoled pediment, formed the main entrance to the hospital. Designed to create the impression that new patients were entering a prestigious institution more like a country house than a lunatic asylum, it is shown here in the process of demolition. When Murthly Hospital closed in 1984, the building, like many other Victorian asylums throughout Scotland, was too vast to be maintained or conserved, and was demolished and the site redeveloped. This photograph forms an important record, both in relation to the social and architectural history of Scotland, of an institution built at the high point of Scottish asylum planning. 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/785529

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap