Bangour Village Hospital is a unique remaining example of a psychiatric hospital built in the village style – a revolutionary design for the late 19th century. In 1897, members of the Lunacy Board visited Leipzig, Germany, to take a look at the Altscherbitz Asylum. Opened in 1876, this was a brand new approach to psychiatric care; moving away from people locked away in rooms and giving them the space and freedom to help with their mental health, giving them the feeling of living within a small community village.
It seems to me to be the type of asylum that confirms most completely to the most modern and the best idea of what an asylum ought to be. It carries further than any other type the idea the idea of making asylum arrangements similar to those of ordinary life. – John Sibbald.
With officials happy, a 960 acre site was purchased just a few miles west of Edinburgh and a competition was launched to find someone to design it. Scottish architect Hippolyte Blanc, known for designing gothic style churches, won the competition and was tasked with designing this ground-breaking asylum. Construction started in 1898 and the Edinburgh District Asylum was opened in 1906.
Blanc designed the asylum to be completely self sufficient with its own farms, power supply, reservoir and its own railway was even built due to the lack of suitable roads.
Each villa accommodated between 25 and 40 patients and had a day room, dining room and dormitories. Most other asylums had a central dining hall where all of the patients would congregate for their meals however having everyone spread across this vast site made some things, like this, more difficult.
After the main hospital opened, so did the recreation hall. At almost 100ft long it features a stage with an orchestra pit, which could be covered up when not needed. A chapel was completed in 1930, designed by Englishman Harold. O Tarbolton, who trained alongside architect George Thomas Hine.
The site was requisitioned by the War Office in both World Wars, with patients transferred to Hartwood Hospital in World War 2.
In 1961, Minister of Health, Enoch Powell, gave his infamous ‘water tower’ speech where he announced that he wanted to see these archaic institutions closed, saying that by using more of the newly discovered anti-psychotic drugs, around 75,000 beds could go with patients treated in the community.
Bangour Village managed to survive until 1991 when it closed its doors after 85 years. Some of the existing patients were transferred to the newly opened St John’s Hospital.
Bangour Village
In October 2015, planning permission was sought for a new housing development on the abandoned Bangour site, with the mixed-used redevelopment being called ‘Bangour Village’. Despite the majority of the buildings being listed, planning permission was approved for the development with five buildings embarked for demolition but with ten being redeveloped. Plans below by ‘MLA Architects’ show the plans for two of the former buildings, with the hall set to be a school.
Surviving Buildings
We have compiled a map of the existing buildings to show you what remains today.
1. Villas 18, 19, 20.
Female patients who required little supervision would have lived in these buildings. Patients in villa 18 would have worked in the laundry department and those in 19 and 20 would have been employed doing needlework and embroidery.
2. Recreation Hall
3. Villa 7
4. Nurses Home
The former nurses home originally had 88 single rooms and was looked after by a housekeeper and six staff.
5. Hospital Block
Home to wards 3, 4 and 5.
6. Chapel
Built in a Romanesque style, it was designed to allow all forms of Christian worship. It was built, using whinstone from a local quarry, as a memorial for the contribution that Bangour had made to the war.
7. Administration
8. Villa 10
9. Villa 8
10. Power Station & Workshops
The workshops provided employment for the male patients in the hospital and included a painter, smith, cabinetmaker, upholsterer, plumber, carpenter and shoemaker. The boiler house was situated to the east and the south side contained the coal sheds. The coal was delivered directly into the shed via shutes, which arrived by train into the hospital’s train station. Steam produced here was used to power the laundry, kitchen and bakery and the electricity generated was used for the whole hospital. The engineer’s house was situated close by and is the current Gateway Cottage.
Villa 9 (demolished)
Villa 9 was situated north of Villa 10, to the east of the administration block. It was used initially as accommodation for patients who required close supervision and is thought to have been the only building to have padded rooms. Due to the unpredictability of patients in this villa, each person had their own room, unlike some of the others which had communal wards.
Sources: Wellcome Collection, Wikipedia, HistoricEnvironment.Scot, Historic-Hospitals.com