Former Meadowside Hospital, Kincraig, Alvie, Highland

Description

A small-scale, symmetrical H-plan, former fever (or infectious diseases) hospital in the domestic style, located in the Spey Valley between Kingussie and Kincraig, Inverness-shire. It was constructed in 1905-06 to a design by Alexander Cattanach of Kingussie, comprising a central administration block (Meadowside House) flanked by two detached single storey ward pavilions with eight annexes projecting diagonally from each corner. There is a single-storey former service block to the west. The buildings are all constructed from dark rubble, with contrasting pale sandstone ashlar dressings, and have grey slate roof coverings. The hospital was converted to residential / holiday accommodation between 1991 and 2002.

The former administration block (Meadowside House) is a two-storey, three-bay house with a stone doorcase flanked by bipartite windows and square hood-moulds at ground floor. First-floor dormer windows break the eaves line, having pitched roofs with timber bargeboards and iron finials. A pitched-roofed single-storey kitchen range of 1905-06 (and a later 20^th or early 21^st century timber conservatory with a stone base) adjoins the north (rear) elevation. A pitched-roof garage, in similar stone rubble with pale dressing stones and a grey slate roof, has been added to the west gable. The house has timber sash and case windows with a four-pane glazing pattern. It also has broad, gable-end chimney stacks with clay cans and cast iron rainwater goods.

The two flanking ward pavilions have pitched roofs with a keystone plaque roundel to the gable, and cuboid-plan sanitary annexes adjoining each of the four corners. All eight annexes have pyramidal roofs and windows on opposing sides. The former ward blocks have timber-frame windows with top-hoppers.

To the west is a former detached service block with four roof-top ventilators. This single-storey building was also converted to holiday accommodation (between 1991-2002).

Statement of Interest

The former Meadowside Hospital at Kincraig meets the criteria of special architectural or historic interest for the following reasons:

For the near complete survival of its plan-form, good quality masonry and exterior design details.

For its characteristic plan form, with former twin ward pavilions and corner sanitary annexes illustrating the former function.

For its largely intact rural setting, characteristic of small-scale fever hospitals of the period.

For its rarity as one of the most complete surviving examples of a small-scale, twin ward pavilion small infectious diseases hospital to survive in Scotland.

For its contribution to understanding regional responses to infectious disease, and health care provision in Scotland at the turn of the 20^th century.

Historical development

Local architect Alexander Cattanach of Kingussie (c.1857–1928) produced plans for the hospital in 1905 for Badenoch local council. Cattanach trained as a stonemason and was designer of the nearby Duthill United Free Church and Manse (LB262, Category B). Meadowside Hospital opened in 1906 with accommodation for 12 patients within two gender segregated ward pavilions, each having infected and disinfected ward rooms. The central two-storey block contained offices and staff rooms. The service building to the west consisted primarily of a laundry, coal house, stable and mortuary.

The building ceased to function specifically as a fever hospital in 1934 when the county council centralised its infectious cases to Inverness (The Scotsman, 1934). Meadowside was, however, retained as a hospital on a care and maintenance basis.

Possibly due to the potential bombing of hospitals during the Second World War, Meadowside Hospital is not shown on the Third Edition Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1938, published 1949).

The buildings were proposed for use as a tuberculosis (TB) convalescent hospital in 1949 (The Scotsman, 1949). The hospital buildings were converted to residential and holiday accommodation between 1991 and 2002.

Two enclosed timber and stone-base corridors (linking the wards to the central block) were largely removed as part of the hospital's conversion. Pitched-roof porches to either side of Meadowside House indicate the position of the corridors. The holiday cottages within the former wards and service block are currently (2022) named after Scottish islands including Jura, Harris, Mull, Skye and Lewis.

Architectural interest

Design

The symmetrical plan form at Meadowside, with its domestic/cottage-style administration block flanked by twin ward pavilions with projecting sanitary annexes at each corner, is characteristic of turn of the century fever hospital design.

The Meadowside buildings are illustrated and described in the publication "Building Up Our Health" (2002, pp.71-72) as a good example of the smaller isolation hospitals serving rural districts. The four former hospital buildings are all constructed of local stone, with the central block (Meadowside House) and the flanking wards both having design details influenced by 18^th and 19^th century Scottish classical vernacular architecture, including hood-mouldings above the windows, the pyramid-shaped annexe roofs, and the keystone plaque roundel.

Innovations in hospital and sanitorium design and ventilation from around 1880 reflected new medical understanding about the spread, control and management of contagious epidemics. The cuboid-plan sanitary annexes at Meadowside all have windows on opposing sides to maximise ventilation through the building when required. The 'X-plan' ward pavilions specifically demonstrate the intended function as a fever hospital.

Changes to the hospital buildings in the late 20th century include the removal of the two enclosed corridor links (a non-standard element of fever hospital design of this scale and date) and the removal of earlier interior features as part of the conversion of the building to residential and holiday accommodation use. While these alterations have affected the integrity of the building to some degree, the changes do not significantly lessen the special design interest of the building. Meadowside continues to demonstrate its former function and has special interest for the otherwise complete survival of its plan-form, good quality materials and exterior design details.

Setting

The former Meadowside Hospital is located on the north side of the Spey Valley between Kingussie and Kincraig in Inverness-shire (Highland) with views towards the River Spey, Loch Insh and the Caingorm mountain range. Trees partly screen the buildings from the A9 trunk road to the southeast (visible during the winter months) and the site backs onto animal enclosures at the Highland Wildlife Park on higher ground to the northwest. Two holiday cottages of timber construction have been added to the east of the former hospital site.

The former hospital is situated away from other buildings, which is an important characteristic of fever hospitals of the period. The Medical Officer for Health's Report for 1906 described the site as an ideal one, well away from the nearest inhabited house. The mountain air, panoramic vistas and closeness to the natural environment were all considered integral to the convalescent recovery process.

The former function of the hospital buildings continues to be reflected in its setting, which has not changed significantly since the early 20^th century. There is special interest under this heading.

Historic interest

Age and rarity

As a building type, former purpose-built fever hospitals are increasingly rare in Scotland. Around 40 local and county fever hospitals were constructed to a similar small-scale model of a central block and flanking twin ward pavilions between 1880 and 1910. Many have been demolished including those at Kilwinning, Bannockburn, West Fife, Penicuik, Montrose, Brechin, Loanhead, Musselburgh, Duntocher, Portsoy, Fraserburgh and Forfar. Others have been substantially altered.

Those that survive in a relatively intact and recognisable form may be of special interest for listing. While Meadowside has been altered, it remains legible as a former fever hospital dating from this period in Scotland. In particular, the twin ward pavilions with diagonally-set pyramid-roofed annexes are now a rare surviving feature.

Leanchoil Hospital at Forres, Morayshire (LB13314, Category B) includes a former infectious disease pavilion ward of 1889 with turreted corner annexes. Very few surviving examples of former fever hospitals in Scotland feature these distinctive sanitary annexe corner projections. The former fever hospital at Newtonloan, Midlothian (LB44623, Category C) was built in 1890 from red brick in the Queen Anne style. While retaining a number of interesting features it does not have a symmetrical ward pavilion plan or projecting sanitary annexes. It was converted to residential use around the same time as Meadowside.

The former hospital building at Meadowside, represents a rare survival of small-scale pavilion-plan fever hospital construction around the turn of the 20^th century, with the surviving design of the buildings illustrating their former function to a greater degree than most other known surviving examples.

Social historical interest

The former Meadowside Hospital is part of a wider healthcare movement in Scotland during the later years of the 19^th century. Earlier in the 19th century, poor working environments and ignorance about the spread of disease contributed to high death rates and a series of contagious epidemics, particularly in urban areas. Outbreaks of infectious disease could overwhelm existing hospitals, as was the case in the 1830s when the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary ceased admitting cholera patients.

Improved public health administration and legislation including the Public Health Acts (Scotland) of 1867 and 1872 laid the foundations for a better system. Fever hospitals were constructed in response to new medical understanding of infectious disease such as cholera, typhoid and scarlet fever, and were often dependent on voluntary donations and charitable fundraising before the Public Health (Scotland) Act of 1897 transferred responsibility for the provision of fever hospitals entirely to local government authorities.

The construction of small, purpose-built infectious diseases hospitals across the country was an important development during this period. These hospitals were typically built on the outskirts of major settlements, on a domestic scale, with two detached pavilion wards or isolation units.

Meadowside is one of the most characteristic and complete examples of a domestic scale, twin-pavilion fever hospital to survive in Scotland. The symmetrical annexed pavilion ward plan and the rural setting contribute to our understanding of infectious disease health care provision in Scotland at the turn of the 20^th century.

Listed building record revised in 2022.

External Links

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