Archaelogy, education, medical and charitable institutions of Glasgow / edited by Magnus Maclean.

Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Archaelogy, education, medical and charitable institutions of Glasgow / edited by Magnus Maclean. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    one time in the possession of the Archbishop of Glasgow, and appears in the rent books of the diocese as forming part of the revenue of the Barony. When the boundaries of the city were extended in 1891, 91 acres of this estate were purchased by the Corporation, 53 acres of which were laid out as a public park ; 36^ acres were set apart for hospital purposes; and 1| utilised for the erection of a washing and disinfecting station. The erection of the Hospital was begun on 16th April, 1895, by cutting the first sod for the foundation of the Administrative Department; the foundation stone laid by the wife of the Lord Provost of the time (now Sir James Bell, Bart.), on 29th August, 1S95; and the Hospital formally declared open on 13th June, 1900, by H.R.H. Princess Christian. Patients were first admitted to the wards on 10th September, 1900. The Hospital site is on sloping ground, the main declivity of which is toward the north-east, but along this main slope on either side the contour is irregular, so that a considerable extent of under-building has been required to preserve a fairly uniform level for the floors of the various wards. The only entrance to the Hospital is by the main gateway in Bilsland Drive. The genei'al disposition of the buildings is as follows:—the admin- istrative block, facing west, occupies the higher part of the ground, and extending eastwards from its rear is a main street or avenue, along both sides of which the pavilions and other executive buildings are arranged. Midway along the main avenue, on the south side, is a water tower 165 feet in height, rendered necessary by the elevation of the ground on which the Hospital stands, but dealt with architecturally in a manner which makes it a feature in the landscape. Round this tower the several buildings may be said to be grouped. To the north of the tower, and on the opposite side of the avenue, is the kitchen and stores block, containing dining-halls, dispensary, oflices for the clerk of works and house steward, and store-rooms for the matron. On the south of the tower is the day- workers, or cleaners' block, containing 78 bedrooms. The administrative block is three storeys in height. It has a frontage of 240 feet, with wings on either side extending to 189 feet, and provides accommodation for the administrative staff and 200 nurses. The wards are airanged in sixteen pavilions of two wards each—the pavihons being separated from each other laterally by an interval of 70 feet. Four of the pavilions are smaller than the others, in order to provide facilities for the isolation of cases of mixed infections. The larger pavilions have an over-all measurement of 231 feet 1 inch by 25 feet 7 inches. Internally the wards are divided by a mean gable. Each ward again contains an acute and convalescent section, the acute measuring sixtij-six feet by twenty-two feet, and the convalescent thirty-three feet by twenty-two feet, giving a floor space of one htmdred and forty-jive square feet per patient. The wall head is thirteen feet high, and the apex of the arch of ceiling eighteen feet. The flooring is of pitch pine, stained and polished; the walls lined with decorative tiles to the height of seven feet. The upper part of the wall above tiles, and the ceiling, which is arched, are plastered with Keene's cement, and washed with distemper. These measurements apply to the larger pavilions.