Strathmartine Hospital

Strathmartine Hospital, built in 1900 to a design by John Turnbull Maclaren, comprises a two-and-a-half-story administration block and three two-story ward blocks. The hospital demonstrates group value as an example of institutional architecture from the period.

The tall, eleven-bay administration block features a pavilion roof and shaped gables. It is constructed from stugged squared and snecked rubble with ashlar dressings, a deep bull-faced rubble base course, a first-floor cill course, and a band course. Stone transoms and mullions are present throughout.

The southwest elevation, the principal facade, is symmetrical. The central bays have a pavilion roof with dwarf walls flanking stone steps leading to a three-bay porch with a pilastered and keystoned round-headed doorpiece, a two-leaf panelled timber door, and a sunburst-astragalled fanlight. Flanking the doorpiece are transomed tripartite windows and single transomed windows to the outer returns, all topped by a deep corniced blocking course. The first floor has transomed bipartite windows in each bay; the central bay has a bipartite window breaking the eaves into a piended dormerhead, while the outer bays have flat-roofed dormers (with replacement windows) that also break the eaves. Flanking two-story bays are set slightly back, each with a transomed bipartite window to the centre flanked by single windows on each floor – the ground floor windows are transomed. A first-floor window breaks into a piended dormerhead. Projecting single-story outer bays have a five-part canted transomed window below a corniced blocking course. Above this is a shaped gable with an arrowslit in the gablehead, a rounded bay with two narrow lights to the inner re-entrant angles, and four single windows to the outer returns. The northeast elevation consists primarily of later extensions.

The three ward blocks, located to the southeast and northwest of the administration building, each have an advanced, piended bay to the right of the centre. The southeast ward’s bay has a swept roof to a five-part canted window at ground level, a tripartite window above, and a single window to each floor of the left return. The recessed bay contains a tripartite window at ground level and a bipartite window at the first floor. The ward to the northwest mirrors this design. The southeast and northwest elevations are symmetrically fenestrated, featuring elements such as a full-height, polygonal-roofed canted stair tower to the outer ward at the southeast. The rear northeast elevations are stepped, with a variety of elements including original glazing and later extensions.

The windows are timber sash and case windows with various glazing patterns: four-, eight-, ten-pane, and plate glass, or a horizontal 14-pane pattern. The roofs are grey slate, with ashlar-coped skews, overhanging eaves with exposed rafters, finials, and cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers.