Perth, Muirhall Road, Murray Royal Hospital, Elcho Villa
Hospital Block (20th Century) (1904)
Site Name Perth, Muirhall Road, Murray Royal Hospital, Elcho Villa
Classification Hospital Block (20th Century) (1904)
Canmore ID 319464
Site Number NO12SW 335
NGR NO 12877 24065
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/319464
- Council Perth And Kinross
- Parish Kinnoull
- Former Region Tayside
- Former District Perth And Kinross
- Former County Perthshire
A pair of near identical 2-storey, 4-bay, (6-bay to rear), half-timbered, multi-gabled, villas with single-storey rounded bay extensions, flanking the hospital chapel. Situated on sloping site. Cream render with red sandstone margins and overhanging eaves. The entrance elevations to east have central loggias with pairs of red sandstone columns. There are canted oriel windows to the upper storey and some 4-light and tri-partite windows to ground with stone mullions. The windows are timber (predominantly boarded up 2014) . There are grey slates to the roof and gently battered wallhead stacks. The interiors were seen in 2014. The original room layout in both is largely extant. There is a timber dog-leg stair case with timber balusters and newels. Round-arched niches to main hall with some timber decoration. Simple cornicing.
The two villas at the Murray Royal Asylum were built by the Perth architects' firm of MacLaren and MacKay in 1904 to provide additional patient accommodation and are unusual in both having survived largely unaltered. Designed in a contemporary Arts and Crafts style with half-timber decoration, the villas have a significant amount of architectural detailing to their exterior, including the oriel windows, battered chimney stacks and open entrance loggias. Situated close to the main building at the Murray Royal and on either side of the early 20th century chapel, they retain much of their original context to the east and are an important part of Murray Royal site. Built in a domestic style, their location within the early 19th century complex emphasises the development of changing attitudes in the care of mental illness in Scotland. Although domestic in style, these large villas were planned for hospital use and are interesting because they demonstrate the shift towards personal rather institutional care. The Main Building at the Murray Royal Asylum was designed by William Burn and it opened in 1828. This original building is the earliest surviving asylum building in Scotland. The Murray Royal hospital was founded from a bequest by a local man, James Murray. It is not clear what his motivation was for the bequest, but is likely to have been to provide compassionate care and good surroundings for the mentally ill. Initially, the Murray Royal catered for both pauper and richer patients, but in the mid 19th century, the pauper patients were moved to a new asylum at Murthly, Perthshire. Care for the mentally ill altered a great deal over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries. Before this, people with mental health problems were generally concealed from society, often in prisons, and confined often in harsh conditions. Some were looked after in private 'mad-houses', which were unregulated and where the care varied widely. The earliest general infirmaries also had a few cells kept aside for the confinement of 'lunatics', sometimes in damp basements, but the doctors complained that the noise from these people disturbed the other patients and separate buildings were proposed. The first major reform for caring for these patients came from France, particularly Phillipe Pinel (1745-1826) who advocated care and compassion for these patients, rather than confinement and chains. These ideas spread to Scotland and the first asylums here promoted the idea of compassionate care. By the end of the 19th century, attitudes regarding best way to care for the mentally ill were changing. There was a growing understanding that patients would be better looked after in smaller, more domestic settings, rather than the large, institutional settings. These two villas were built as part of this development at the Murray Royal. The separate chapel, which lies between the villas, was also built at this time. Smaller villas were also built at other large asylums, for example at Sunnyside in Montrose, and at the Crichton in Dumfries. The new sites of Bangour in West Lothian and Craighouse in Edinburgh were also designed with a number of villas to accommodate the patients. Over the course of the 20th century, other buildings were added to the complex, the majority of which have since been demolished. A new Murray Royal Hospital was built in 2010-12 and the original buildings were unoccupied in 2014. Listed following a review of the former Murray Royal Asylum site, (2014). (Historic Scotland)
Standing Building Recording (22 February 2021 - 1 March 2021)
NO 12879 24062–NO 13113 24009 A historic building survey was carried out from 22 February–1 March 2021, of a number of late 19th- and early 20th-century hospital buildings comprising the former Murray Royal Hospital complex in Perth, prior to the part-demolition and renovation of the buildings. The work was required as a condition of the listed building consent on the development, and included both a basic and enhanced level of historic building survey on the buildings, which included the main Murray Royal Hospital, the Birnam and Elcho Villas, Chapel and Gilgal Building.
The Murray Royal Hospital was constructed in the early 1820s to designs by architect William Burn and was later extended to the NW side in 1833. It was constructed as a lunatic asylum for the people of Perth and the surrounding districts under the will of James Murray of Tarsappie. After the 1830s extensions, it comprised a typical H-Plan hospital with a central administration wing with wards for female and male inpatients to the SW and SE sides, with additional wards to the NW added in 1889. In 1903–1904, two identical detached villas were constructed to the NW of the hospital – the Elcho and Birnam Wings – together with a small chapel between them. At the same time, a sub-basement walkway was also created between the Chapel and the main hospital building. In the early 1930s, another larger detached building known as the Gilgal Building was constructed further to the SE of the hospital for voluntary inpatients.
The layout of the main hospital building is defined by its
large circulation area to the SE side of its central wing, which is located below an octagonal tower rising above the roof with a glazed cupola added in the 1850s. Decorative wrought iron railings adorn the upper second and attic floor levels creating a walkway. There are some late 19th-/early 20th-century detailing in the building, such as the timber panelled doors, cornices and decorative ceilings, together with some survival of cast- iron fireplaces. However, the more elaborately decorated rooms in the building are located at the second floor level in the NW side, consisting of a library with fine joinery and timber detail, and a ballroom. Both rooms have been subject to severe damp and mould in recent years, although much of their original character has been retained.
The Elcho and Birnam Wings are virtually identical and
in opposite symmetry built in an Arts and Craft style with a half-timbered first floor. The Chapel, located between these buildings, has a Nave and Sacristy to the NW side with a small basement area. The Chapel was designed by A R Urquhart in a Scots Gothic style with a plain pitched slate roof and tower at the SE font. This, and the adjacent villas, were all built on a large elevated piece of land with an uninterrupted view of the landscape.
The Gilgal building was constructed in 1930 and designed by architects Smart, Stewart and Mitchell as a detached hospital to the SE of the main hospital building for voluntary inpatients. From the 1990s, a new hospital complex was erected to the NW of the older hospital which eventually became derelict.
In the last few years, the main building has been subject to roof material theft which has led to a severe damp problem in many areas of the building. A fire also gutted the Gilgal building in 2011, which meant that the interior of that building was inaccessible at the time of survey due to health and safety concerns.
Archive: NRHE (intended) Funder: Riverside Residential
Diana Sproat – AOC Archaeology Group
(Source: DES Vol 22)
OASIS ID: aocarcha1-419260
Photographic Survey (26 May 2021)
Elcho Villa was built adjacent to the Hospital Chapel, in the grounds of the Murray Royal Hospital. It was recorded as part of the Threatened Buildings Survey on 26th May 2021 prior to their proposed conversion into residential apartments.
Elcho Villa and Birnam Villa at the Murray Royal Hospital were designed by MacLaren and MacKay of Perth and built in 1904. They provided additional patient accommodation on a more domestic scale away from the institutional main building. They were designed as a near identical pair of villas with half -timbered decoration and harl with columned loggias adopting a more domestic cosy idiom in contrast to the austerity of the main building. The villas flank the new hospital chapel which replaced the earlier chapel in the north wing of the main block.
The James Murray bequest that originally funded the Murray Royal Hospital came from the proceeds of wealth created overseas through Scotland’s Colonial enterprise.
