Weighbridge, Garage And Former Fire Station, Former Sunnyside Hospital, Hillside, Montrose, Angus

Description

Early 20th century. Single storey, symmetrical, 5-bay former garage and fire station (originally a stable), incorporating dwelling house to SW. Pinned rubble with smooth ashlar margins. Raised cills; eaves course. Key-stoned, segmental-arched, window and door openings (boarded). Decorative timber ridge vents.

S (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: symmetrical. Central wide, segmental-arched, key-stoned and quoined entrance doorway with metal finialled, flattened gable above. Flanking, single-window piended-roof bays. Finialled, gabled outer bays with small segmental-arched window to gableheads

E ELEVATION: 5 bays. Asymmetrical. Gabled, finialled bay to far right with large, altered, opening.

W ELEVATION: asymmetrical. Gable to far left with gable stack.

All openings boarded. Piended roofs to centre with gabled roofs to end bays. Raised skews and swekputts. Grey slates. Gable stacks. Some timber sash and case window apparent.

INTERIOR: (partially seen, 2012). Large open space with cobbled floor with dividing, part-glazed timber screen with sliding doors. Some openings with moulded architraves. Further storage rooms with little decoration. Boarded timber roof.

WEIGHBRIDGE: to SE. Intact metal weighbridge on ground, inscribed; 1922 to weigh 15 ton, H Pooley & Son, Ltd, Birmingham & London.

Statement of Interest

B-Group includes Sunnyside Main Building, Hospital Building, North Esk Villa, Garage and Former Fire Station, Booth House Former Nurses' Home, Carnegie House, Water Tank and Former Workshops, Summerhouse, Away Team Cricket Pavilion and Home Team Cricket Pavilion.

This is a good example of an early 20th century ancillary building, built to provide stabling for the wider hospital complex and used latterly as a garage, with a fire station function and integral accommodation. The building has some simple decorative detailing in the varying roof profiles and the key-stoned window architraves and the retention of the part-glazed sliding timber doors to the interior that are of interest. The building forms and important part of the wider hospital site, as one of the ancillary buildings erected to enable the hospital to be as self-sufficient as possible. The building is a key component of the site and helps to demonstrate the understanding of the workings of the hospital.

The hospital consistes of a related group of buildings, informally set in a semi-parkland setting on a hillside overlooking Montrose. The site is significant in remaining largely intact and retaining the integrity of a self-contained psychiatric hospital.

The asylum opened in 1857 and was constructed to replace the former Montrose Lunatic Asylum, established in Montrose IN 1781. This was the first hospital in Scotland to care for the mentally ill and was founded by Susan Carnegie, who hoped that if the patients were given good treatment and medical aid, they may be be able to return to society. The marble tablet from the opening of this original building is situated in the current main building (see seperate listing). In 1855, the Scottish Luncay Commission was appinted and condemned the Montrose building as being unsuitable. It was agreed to build a new asylum and a site to the north of Montrose at Sunnyside Farm was chosen. The architect William Lambie Moffat, who was working in Doncaster, designed the new building. Orginally the building formed a double courtyard plan, but as the numbers of patients increased, the building was extended to the rear in 1877 with the addition of a new recreation hall, dining room and kitchen.

Sunnyside Hospital continued to develop during the latter part of the 19th century and the early 20th century, as patients continued to increase in numbers. A hospital building ws added in 1888 (see separate listing) to care for patients whio had both edical and psychatric conditions. Carnegie House (see separate listing) was constructed in 1896 to provide accommodation for private patients. This was set slightly apart from the main building to the north and the patients had their own garden for recreational use. Other buildings were gradually added to the site, including three villas, workshops and a chapel. The gradual development of the site is important in demonstrating the change in ideas over the century in the care of the mentally ill. When the lease of Sunnyside farm expired in 1911 another 52 further acres werer purchased for the use of the community. Over the course of the 20th century, the patients and staff became involved in a number of activites within the complex including gardening and farming. A seperate nurses' home was built in the 1930s (see seperate listing).

The site ceased to be used as a hospital in 2012.

Listed following a review of the former Sunnyside Hospital site, (2012-13). The later rendered flat-roofed extension to the rear of this building is not considerd to be of special architectural or historic interest at the time of listing (2013).

External Links

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