Documents

There are no additional online documents for this record.

Summary

Description

J L Murray, built 1890-5. Group of Baronial-style hospital buildings which are surviving elements of once much larger complex on the site. Large 2-storey, double pitched and gabled central administration block with advanced gabled bay to centre and 6-stage paired square clock towers to rear (NW) corners. Pair of 3-storey villa style ward blocks set back to left and right and linked to main block by remnants of glazed corridors which also link to large single storey roughly T-plan range of ancillary buildings to rear. Clock towers with single round angle stair turrets to front corners, crenulated parapets and openings to former clock faces to each side (clock faces damaged). Bull-faced cream sandstone rubble masonry with ashlar dressings. Canted bays, transomed and mullioned windows and crowstepped gables.

Grey slate roofs to SW villa (elsewhere roofless 2013).

Statement of Special Interest

The remaining buildings of the former Hartwood Hospital site are an important remnant of the extensive late 19th century asylum hospital complex which was designed with fine Scots Baronial features and stonework including prominent paired clock towers and near symmetrical flanking wings. The surviving buildings act as striking architectural landmarks in the wider open landscape. The hospital blocks were constructed in a diversified plan to accommodate increasing specialisation in the care of psychiatric patients. The main Hartwood Hospital building block with central towers and side wings was designed and built from 1890 by the local architect J L Murray from Biggar as the Lanark District Asylum covering the Lanarkshire area. The 1857 Lunacy (Scotland) Act required all areas to build a District Asylum for its 'pauper lunatics'. The need for more diverse classification of the patients and the better management of different types of psychiatric conditions in the late 19th century led to a wider variety of building types and plans for hospitals built during this period. Hartwood was purposely built on an isolated site for exclusion. The initial build took five years to complete at a cost of £153,000, opening on 14th May 1895 and able to house 420 residents. The industrialisation of the surrounding area boosted the local population and resident numbers rose accordingly reaching 960 by 1913. The expansion required more building and another local architect James Lochhead was commissioned to build more wards and other buildings; a sanatorium in 1904, new reception block in 1916, and male staff hostel in 1936. The largest, and only remaining, one of these was the Nurses Home accommodation built from 1926 and opened in 1931 (see separate listing). Most of the buildings were linked by glazed enclosed external walkways to control the movement of the patients around the site. By the mid 1950s Hartwood Hospital was a fully independent site which had created a hospital "village" with a variety of facilities including a bowling green, arcade of shops and a dancehall. The hospital had its own cemetery in which 1,255 former patients were interred. The village system of patient care, exemplified by the Alt-Scherbitz hospital, near Leipzig in Germany in the 1870s encouraged psychiatric patients to be cared for within their own community setting. Hartwood was the largest asylum in Europe housing 2,500 residents. The introduction of the 1990 Community Care Act resulted in psychiatric care moving to the community and subsequent redundancy for the Hartwood Hospital buildings. From 1995 the hospital buildings moved to administration only and were totally vacated in 1998 to the nearby Hartwoodhill Complex. The majority of the later ward blocks on site were demolished during this period leaving only the main towers and flanking blocks and the ancillary buildings to the rear. The hospital cemetery survives to the north of the site. The ward blocks that remain were damaged by fires in 2004 and 2011, with further damage by vandalism. The separate single storey laundry, boiler block and other ancillary blocks to the north of the site were not considered to be of special architectural or historic interest at the time of the review, 2013. List building record updated and category changed from B to C in 2014; statutory address formerly 'Hartwood, Hartwood Hospital'. Supplementary information in listed building record updated in 2020.

References

Bibliography

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

While Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating listed buildings, the planning authority is responsible for determining what is covered by the listing, including what is listed through curtilage. However, for listed buildings designated or for listings amended from 1 October 2015, legal exclusions to the listing may apply.

If part of a building is not listed, it will say that it is excluded in the statutory address and in the statement of special interest in the listed building record. The statement will use the word 'excluding' and quote the relevant section of the 1997 Act. Some earlier listed building records may use the word 'excluding', but if the Act is not quoted, the record has not been revised to reflect subsequent legislation.

Listed building consent is required for changes to a listed building which affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The relevant planning authority is the point of contact for applications for listed building consent.

Find out more about listing and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.