Interior-general view of Great Hall in Craig House

Description Interior-general view of Great Hall in Craig House

Date 1895

Collection Records of Bedford Lemere and Company, photographers, London, England

Catalogue Number SC 702013

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of BL 13248

Scope and Content Great Hall, Craighouse Mental Asylum, Craighouse Road, Edinburgh, looking north-east (latterly the Royal Edinburgh Hospital and presently part of Napier University) Craighouse Mental Asylum, a huge chateau designed by the architect, Sydney Mitchell, was built in 1889-94 as new hospital premises for the Royal Edinburgh Asylum. The Great Hall, a general amusement room for patients, was photographed in 1895 by the architectural photographer, Harry Bedford Lemere. This magnificent oak-panelled, Baronial-style hall is lit by a huge Venetian window in the north wall. The upper walls are divided by elaborate Corinthian pilasters into bays with semicircular arches topped by scallop shells. The stone chimneypiece, one of two in the room, has a hood panelled in alabaster. The hall was designed to provide patients with a light, airy environment for recreation in surroundings resembling those of a great Victorian country house. It was a room for social functions, including musical evenings, orchestral recitals and theatrical productions, often performed by the patients themselves. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/702013

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap