Hospital Block, Bangour Village Hospital

Hospital Block, Bangour Village Hospital

This is the administration and admission ward block of Bangour Village Hospital, designed by the eminent Edinburgh architect Hippolyte J Blanc. The building was begun in 1898 following an architectural competition and completed in 1906, when the hospital opened. It remains one of the key buildings within the outstanding hospital complex, positioned prominently and centrally within the site.

The structure displays a near-symmetrical butterfly plan, comprising a 2-storey and attic 5-bay central block with radiating single-storey wings and terminating gabled villas. It is constructed in restrained Scots Renaissance style. The building is situated on a sloping site facing south and is built of roughly coursed and snecked light sandstone with contrasting red ashlar margins. Windows to the wings break the wallhead; the roofs are piended with shouldered gables and round-headed dormerheads. Some nepus gables are present. Later single-storey additions and stairwell structures have been added to the rear (north side).

The principal (south) elevation is symmetrical, featuring a slightly advanced central gabled bay and further advanced outer bays with canted bay windows at ground level with blocking courses. A base course, band courses, and cornice run across the facade. The central entrance doorway has a moulded and corniced doorpiece, flanked by small window openings. Bi-partite windows with stone mullions are present throughout, along with small flat-roofed roof dormers. Single-storey wings to east and west have shouldered gables and some round-arched dormer heads, with end pavilions set at right angles also featuring shouldered gables. Basement storeys occur to the west and east.

The north elevation is asymmetrical with multiple roof heights and gables, including a 4-stage square-plan tower at the centre.

The majority of windows are currently boarded. Some original 6-over-6-pane timber sash and case windows survive. The roof is covered in grey slates with terracotta ridge tiles. Corniced gable stacks with raised skews are present.

Historically, this building served as the administration and reception wards where patients were assessed on arrival. It accommodated offices, a board room, a dispensary, and accommodation for three physicians.

Bangour Village Hospital represents the finest surviving example in Scotland of a psychiatric hospital built according to the village system of patient care, a revolutionary late 19th-century concept that encouraged patients to be cared for within their own community setting with few physical restrictions and encouraged village self-sufficiency. This philosophy contrasted sharply with the large contemporary asylum buildings of the period. Though other Scottish psychiatric hospitals were built on this model, including Kingseat near Aberdeen (1904) and Dykebar Hospital in Paisley (1909), neither has survived as completely as Bangour.

The hospital was designed with no external walls or gates. Utility buildings were positioned at the site centre; medical buildings for patients requiring medical supervision and treatment were situated to the east; and villas to the west accommodated patients requiring less supervision who were able to work. The complex originally included a farm to the northwest, and had its own water and electricity systems and railway.

During the First World War, the hospital was commissioned by the War Office for wounded soldiers, and temporary structures were erected. Most were dismantled after the war, although some timber structures were retained. The railway was dismantled in 1921 and patients returned in 1922. The hospital was again commissioned during the Second World War, when many temporary shelters were erected to the northwest of the site, which became the basis of Bangour General Hospital (now demolished). Bangour Village Hospital continued as a psychiatric hospital until 2004.

Hippolyte J Blanc (1844–1917) was an eminent and prolific Edinburgh-based architect best known for his Gothic revival churches. He was also a keen antiquarian, and many of his buildings evoke earlier Scottish styles.

The interior has not been inspected. This building is listed as part of a group with Bangour Village Hospital Former Memorial Church, Former Nurses' Home, Former Hospital Block with Wards 4, 5 and 6, Former Recreation Hall, Honeysuckle Cottage, Villas 7, 8, 9 and 10, Villas 18, 19, 20 and 21, and Former Power Station Complex.