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Summary

Description

John Starforth, 1879. Large and imposing Scots Baronial former poorhouse (now predominantly hospital office accommodation, 2008) with tall, pyramidal-roofed entrance tower, situated on raised site within extensive grounds and with later, 20th century alterations and additions. Snecked, rock-faced red sandstone with ashlar margins. Complex, large scale site with originally largely U-plan form with central cruciform-plan courtyard wing comprising many individual buildings. One wing (W) of U-plan now demolished. Range of further buildings, including adjoining former infirmary wing to W.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: WINGS TO N and E: mainly 2-storey, crowstepped and multi-gabled. String courses; 2-storey canted bay windows, segmental-arched openings to upper storey. Some tripartite windows with stone mullions and corbelled windows. Round and pedimented dormerheads.

N (PRINCIPAL) WING: 19-bays with right, off-centre, advanced 3-bay section with 4-stage, square-plan entrance tower with steep pyramidal roof and corbelled, blind arcaded parapet. Segmental-arched entrance with moulded architrave. Corbelled oriel window above. Flanking 2-storey and attic bays with pair of angle attic turrets with pepperpot roofs.

EAST WING: 21-bay, with recessed and advanced sections and with later single-story L-plan extension to far left. Off-centre 3-storey 2-bay, double-gabled section.

Predominantly replacement plate glass timber tilt and turn windows. Some timber sash and case multi-pane windows. Grey slates. Apex stacks.

INTERIOR: (seen 2008). Substantially altered to form office accommodation. One open-well staircase with decorative cast iron balusters and timber handrail.

COURTYARD WING: series of several largely contemporary single storey outbuildings, including pair of piend-roofed 5-bay single storey former dining halls. Other, red brick and rubble former workshops and associated buildings. Some gable and some piended roofs. Some windows boarded, others timber sash and case and timber multi-pane with top hoppers.

FORMER INFIRMARY WING TO FAR W: linked by corridor to main building to E. Principal, rectangular-plan crow-stepped section with 3-stage square-plan corner towers with pyramidal roofs. 4 regularly-spaced wallhead gables to E and W elevations. Later 2- storey harled brick additions to corners. Segmental-arched window openings to upper storey, some tripartite with stone mullions. Lucarned flèches to ridge. Further 2-storey section adjoining at W.

Windows boarded (2008).

OUTBUILDINGS: to S. Several single storey, red brick former workshops with gabled and piended-roofs.

Single storey red brick bell-cast piend-roofed building to SE, with round-arched window openings and deep overhanging eaves.

Statement of Special Interest

Ravenscraig Hospital is a rare survival of an extensive and largely externally unaltered later 19th century poorhouse complex built in the then fashionable Scots Baronial style. Although one of its major wings has been demolished it still retains the majority of its original form, including its ancillary structures such as workshops and dining rooms. An important landscape feature, it has good decorative detailing, and the entrance tower to the North, with its prominent oriel window, is particularly striking. Surviving poorhouses on this scale and of this quality are uncommon. The contemporary former infirmary to the West has prominent pyramidal roofed corner towers which add interest to the distinctive roof treatment of the complex's design. A further separate isolation wing to the far West of the complex was demolished in the mid 20th century.

This poorhouse, which also contained asylum accommodation for the mentally ill, was built to replace an earlier poorhouse in Greenock which had been condemned in the early 1870s. Originally built with 3 wings, the one to the West was demolished in the mid 20th century. The remaining wing to the East was originally the asylum with the wing to the North housing offices. The asylum housed 150 patients, and there were 450 paupers in the poorhouse. Each of the units had separate dining halls in the centre of the complex. All were under the supervision of a governor and resident doctor. To the West was the infirmary and it provided accommodation for 100 patients. Larger poorhouses, such as this one, often had adjoining infirmaries to house the sick. Further to the West, and detached from the infirmary, was a contagious ward which was demolished in the mid 20th century. A number of service buildings for the poorhouse are incorporated into the original plan and are situated in the courtyard and to the South.

The cost of the building was £80,000 and this expense was criticised by some contemporaries who referred to it as "The Palace of the Kip Valley". During WWI a section of the building was used for military casualties. After 1930 it became a Poor Law Hospital. In 1939 the Admiralty took over the premises and in 1941, it became the UK headquarters of the Canadian Navy and known as HMCS Niobe. With the advent of the National Health Service in 1948 the building became known as Ravenscraig Hospital and latterly provided care for the elderly and mentally ill. The building is currently predominantly Health Service office accommodation (2008). The former infirmary wing is currently disused.

Although some parishes in Scotland had poorhouses before 1845, it was after the Poor Law (Scotland) Act of that year, that most of the poorhouses were built. A requirement of the 1845 law was that inmates should be segregated into male and female and this segregation continued into differentiating between the deserving and non-deserving poor. In 1847, a model plan for poorhouses was published by the Board of Supervision. This encouraged an H-plan layout, which many of the poorhouses followed. By the 1870s, larger poorhouses, such as this one had separate areas for a poorhouse, an asylum and an infirmary. The plan for these larger institutions was necessarily more complex, although the same basic arrangement existed and the Greenock poorhouse shares a similar plan form to the Govan poorhouse in Glasgow of 1867 (now the Southern General Hospital), the Craiglockhart Poorhouse in Edinburgh, 1867 (now converted to flats) and Woodend Hospital in Aberdeen, 1907-8 (see separate listings). Many of the other poorhouses built on this scale have been demolished.

John Starforth (circa 1822-1898) was based in Edinburgh and his work consisted mainly of churches, hospitals, poorhouses and country house commissions. Much of his work is located in the Borders and Dumfries. He published several design books, including "The Architecture of the Farm" in 1853 and "Designs for Villa Residences" in 1866.

References

Bibliography

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