Nurses Home, Warnock Street, Royal Infirmary, 82-86 Castle Street, Glasgow is a Grade B listed building in the Glasgow City local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 25 November 1982.

Nurses Home, Warnock Street, Royal Infirmary, 82-86 Castle Street, Glasgow

WRENN ID
deep-threshold-brook
Grade
B
Local Planning Authority
Glasgow City
Constituency
Glasgow North East MP: Maureen Burke (Lab)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
25 November 1982
OS grid reference
NS 602 657
Coordinates
55.86436, -4.23391
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

Large complex of hospital buildings centred on a vast courtyard block designed by James Miller between approximately 1897 and 1901, and built (according to inscription on the building) between 1905 and 1915, including earlier fabric such as the Gateway on East Chapel Avenue. The buildings are constructed or clad mostly in ashlar, probably Giffnock stone, with concealed or slated roofs. Glazing to the ward blocks comprises mostly 3-pane single windows, each consisting of a sliding sash and case in combination with top-hoppers. The courtyard buildings are all steel-framed, with generous fenestration.

The Accident and Emergency Block faces Castle Street and closes the courtyard on the west. It opened in 1909 as a long, low near-symmetrical, screen-like structure with a centre pend now enclosed. An underground tunnel links it to the main block beyond. At its north end stands the Lister Lecture Theatre, built in 1926–27, with Lister's work here recorded on a wall plaque. The block is enclosed by wrought-iron gates and railings.

The courtyard comprises three main blocks of 7 or 8 storeys including basement and attics, arranged in a broadly symmetrical layout. These are neo-Baroque in style with Scottish revival details, featuring balustraded wallheads and concealed roofs. Built in separate stages and almost free-standing, they were originally linked only by bridges at upper levels, though the areas between are now glazed-in. Sanitary towers nearby are similarly free-standing and glazed-in by bridges.

The North Block, known as the Robert and James Dick block and dated 1909, is built in lighter-coloured stone and extends eastward to the north of Cathedral burial ground, with turreted angles.

The Central Block, the Templeton block for administration and special diseases, is the largest of the three and is dated 1915, though it opened in 1912. Its inner part is raised one storey, and it has a turreted centre entrance tower still higher. The ground floor features an arcade with Scottish 17th-century detailing. Full-height circular sanitary turrets flank the structure, with top stages of lesser dimensions.

The South Block, the Jubilee block, opened in 1914. Its south front is Beaux Arts in style, reproducing features from an Adam scheme including a dome, with an advanced centre and ends and applied ornament. The forecourt area was reconstructed as part of Cathedral Square works between 1990 and 1992.

There are two Nurses' Homes. One, facing Wishart Street, is flat-fronted, tall, and classical, forming a square 4-storey block with attic. It has a raised basement as its ground floor, with a centre doorway to a symmetrical 5-bay south front and a full-height projection at the north end of each flank wall. It features blocked eaves, a bell-cast roof with dormers, and 12-pane sash and case windows. A laundry adjoins it to the north. The other Nurses' Home faces north and Warnock Street, consisting of two linked rectangular-plan parts set between the laundry and the main hospital building to the west. It is 6 storeys including basement and attics, with the west part probably built first. It has a symmetrical south front with a shallow advanced centre and a later top floor, with bays to the east and full-height canted end bays on the main front.

The Gateway, dating from 1832 and facing East Chapel Avenue, features cast-iron gates that are castellated with a 4-centred arch and may be by David Hamilton. It is adjoined to the south by St Mungo's College, now demolished (2001).

The Clock Tower Block at 88–92 Castle Street is part of the hospital complex. Built by William Landless between 1878 and 1891 as part of the Glasgow Blind Asylum, it is a 4-storey corner building with an engaged hexagonal tower to the south-west featuring an open belfry and stone spire. It presents two well-detailed elevations in Free Revivalist style, combining Franco-Scots, northern European and Gothic elements, with crowstepped gables and stone-bracketed balconies. The tower sculpture is by Charles B Grassby of Glasgow and includes a canopied niche and a representation of Christ restoring a blind child's sight.

Local climate

Nurses Home, Warnock Street, Royal Infirmary, 82-86 Castle Street, Glasgow sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,250 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 93% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 80% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 58 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 97% of listed buildings. Of these, 34 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.2°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

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