Restless Places - Asylums and Mental Hospitals in the Dundee Area

I have seen the Asylum they lately have made,
And approve of the plan, but indeed I'm afraid
If they send all the people of reason bereft
To this Bedlam, but few in the town will be left.
For their passions and drink are so terribly strong
That but few here retain all their faculties long.
And with shame I must own, that the females, I think.
Are in general somewhat addicted to drink!

   The above was the comic remark of the English poet Thomas Hood during a stay in Dundee in 1815. Although there was recognition that mental illness had to be treated with care there is evidence enough of ill treatment before, during and after its onset. Here's a haunting record of a nameless inhabitant of a mental institution in Dundee in the early 19th century which says something about the conditions in society during his age:

A boy, fifteen years of age, was admitted an inmate of  the Dundee Lunatic Asylum, having become imbecile from fright. When twelve years of age he was apprenticed to a light business, and some trifling article being one day missing, he was, along with others, locked up in a dark cellar. The children were much alarmed, and all  were let out, with the exception of this poor boy, who was detained until past midnight. He became from this time nervous and melancholy, and sunk into a state of insensibility, from which he will never recover. The missing article was found on the following morning, exculpating the boy from the guilt with which he had been charged.

[On Superstitions Connected With The History and Practice of Medicine and Surgery, Thomas Joseph Pettigrew (London, 1844), p. 100.]

    Hundreds of people, nameless or barely remembered now, passed through the doors of asylums, orphanages, institutions for the impoverished and the like over the decades.

     Prior to the establishment of separate facilities for those who had psychiatric disorders, those afflicted were confined in a little room in an upper flat of Dundee's Town  temporarily before being sent to Montrose Asylum*.  According to James Myles (Rambles in Forfarshire (Dundee, 1850), p. 52) at least one of those incarcerated there committed suicide, dashing his brains out against the walls.

Dundee Lunatic Asylum

Dundee's Lunatic Asylum was formed as part of the infirmary in the first decade of the 19th century, funded by voluntary contributions, and formally established in 1820 as a  separate entity, with premises in Albert Street.  Subscriptions were first raised after a meeting of the infirmary in 1800, with contributions being raised, including £100 from the town magistrates.  Building was certainly underway bu 1812. 

   In 1824 there were upwards of 70 patients in the asylum. Their living conditions were described as being at least humane:

None are confined to their apartments, in fine weather they are generally found in the airing grounds, pursuing those avocations and amusements to which they are directed by their former habits and taste.  Some are engaged in reading; some in playing on musical instruments; some in drawing; some are employed in manual labour in the garden; here a party is seen at cards; there a couple are intent at backgammon; some females are sewing; some knitting or spinning; some voluntary engage in the work of the house; while it must be added with regret that there are others from whom the eye of the keeper must not wander.

[History of the Dundee Royal Lunatic Asylum, Davie Rorie (Dundee, 1912), p. 19.]

   In 1833 it was recorded that almost all patients were usefully occupied.  The female patients made clothes for themselves and for the male patients.  Male patients were mostly employed weaving cloth for use in the establishment or for sale locally, or picking oakum, plus gardening activities.  

   Among the surprising visitors to the asylum was the American dwarf and entertainer General Tom Thumb.  Rorie reports:

This remarkable little Yankee dwarf delighted many of the patients. Some of them thought he was a doll and were anxious to touch him that they might be satisfied whether he was or not.

Charles Sherwood Stratton (1838 –  1883), 'General Tom Thumb'

   In 1875 the institution became the Dundee Royal Lunatic Asylum.  A year previous to that the directors purchased Westfield Farm in Liff to establish a new asylum.  The area covered was around 110 acres.  Gowrie House and Westgreen were established on the site. The public part of the facilities could accommodate up to 400 patients, while the private asylum (Gowrie House) had room for 62 patients. Dundee District Lunacy Board operated Westgreen from 1903 onward, but Dundee Royal Lunatic Asylum at Gowrie House continued as a separate entity. 

 In 1959 the District Asylum (Westgreen) and the Royal Asylum (Gowrie House) were amalgamated, and became known as the Dundee Royal Mental Hospital.  The Westgreen body became Royal Dundee Liff Hospital in 1963.  Following opening of psychiatric wards at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee in 2001, Liff was closed.  

Liff Hospital in the late Victorian era

Strathmartine Hospital

The history of Strathmartine Hospital, just north of Dundee, is intimately linked with Baldovan House, which was close by it.  While the latter property has, in the past few decades, been demolished in a piecemeal fashion, the structure - or rather the shell - of Strathmartine lingers on, wholly derelict, a prey to arson and vandalism.

   Baldovan was home to a branch of the Ogilvy family and the original house was built in the early 18th century, though extensively remodelled during the following century.  The first name of the institution on the site was Baldovan Hospital. 
  
   The plaque on the foundation of the institution reads:

The Foundation Stone of this Building, erected by

Sir JOHN and Lady JANE OGILVY,

As an Asylum for the Treatment of Defective Children,

was laid on the 7th day of July, 1853, by

The Grand Lodge of Scotland;

John Whyte Melville, Esq., of Bennochy, Deputy Grand Master Mason,

officiating,

Assisted by all the lodges in Dundee.

Architects - Messrs. Coe and Goodwin, London.

Builders - Charles and Alexander Cunningham, of this parish.

   
 The orphanage on the site opened on 30th November 1854 (housing 30 children) and the Asylum opened on 6th January 1855.  As an orphanage , hospital, and indeed a haven for 'imbecile' children it was unique in Scotland and only the second such establishment in Britain.  






   In 1856 there was a change of name to Baldovan Asylum and eleven years later the asylum concentrated its attention on the care of mentally handicapped children. It ceased to function as an orphanage because it was thought the presence of mentally ill inmates would have a detrimental affect on the children.  By 1879 there were 70 children living there. At the start of the 20th century the buildings were expanded, housing 160 children in 1904, and in 1925 the trustees established an incorporation to manage the hospital to serve the children from the countries of Angus, Kincardine, Aberdeenshire and Perthshire.  Strathmartine Hospital, as it became in 1959, was brought into the NHS in 1948 and there was further expansion and rebuilding in the early to mid 1960s.  Indeed, as late as 1980 two new wards were opened.  But decommissioning of  began in the 1980s and it was closed completely in 2003.  Its subsequent sale to a development company resulted only in decay and dereliction.  Fires were repeatedly set in the building, notably in 2016, resulting in partial destruction and demolition. 

  Baldovan House had a physical decline comparable to the adjacent hospital.  It was sold to developers in the late 20th century by Sir David John Wilfrid Ogilvy, but the intended development never occurred.  The deterioration continued through the 1970s and beyond.  A 13 year old boy playing in the building tragically died there by accident in 2002 and the range of buildings was subsequently demolished.  

    Those interested in further material about Strathmartine can read Jimmy Laing's book Fifty Years in the System (1992).  Another resource, this time dedicated to the hospital, is the website Strathmartine Stories

*A previous post looked at the history of Sunnyside Hospital near Montrose, whose most famous patient was the father of Arthur Conan Doyle (story here).