Ruchill Hospital, c. 1922 [Virtual Mitchell]
Words by Helena Paterson
On my return to Scotland ten years ago, after almost 25 years in the Far East, I looked forward to revisiting the Ruchill Hospital. This was only one item on my to-do list. I had worked there as a nurse in 1979 and have many fond memories of the patients there.
Alexander B. McDonald
In the Beginning
Glasgow Corporation acquired the site of Ruchill Park for the construction of Ruchill Hospital in 1892. The hospital was officially opened on 13th June, 1900 by Princess Christian, 3rd daughter of Queen Victoria; formerly known as Princess Helena before her marriage to a German prince. Designed by city engineer, Alexander B. McDonald, it was an impressive hospital complex in its Flemish Renaissance style with a touch of Neo-Jacobean, built with red brick and Locharbriggs sandstone. The layout of the hospital was to represent a self-contained village with the individual ward pavilions with their scalloped gables, symmetrically arranged on the steep hilly terrain. At this elevation and being adjacent to Ruchill Park, the site was considered ideal for patients to get plenty of fresh air and sunshine in a city that was for the most part industrial. This was the second fever hospital in Glasgow; the first being Belvidere Hospital in Parkhead which was becoming increasingly cramped. At the time most of the patients suffered from infectious diseases that were rife at the time such as polio, measles, scarlet fever and diphtheria.
The Main Staircase
The entrance to the hospital was by a gatehouse on Bilsland Drive. Straight ahead was a very steep stone staircase that led to an administrative block. The staircase comprised four flights with landings in between, having to ascend a steep gradient. The stonework was decorative with its stylised balustrade complementing the Flemish Renaissance style of the hospital, octagonal newel posts and corniced piers. Other buildings included the kitchen, laundry, mortuary, laboratory, sanitary wash house and disinfecting station, as well as a stables block. Accommodation was provided for staff with a three-storey nurses’ block. Fortunately, I never had to climb those steps; I could turn left at the gatehouse and follow a path that led to the ward I was assigned to.
The Water Tower
The centrepiece of the complex is the 50m high water tower. It is a tall, square red brick and stone tower resting on a pedestal, with a decorated two-stage body and a complex three-stage head resembling a Flemish bell tower. It is decorated with octagonal turrets, bell-roofed with onion finials at the corners of the first stage then another octagonal tower with a pyramid roof, drum of columns, cupola with foliage top and a finial to top the stage head. Its four large water tanks were removed during restoration in 2014. It’s such a pity that with the tower being so tall, one cannot see and admire all the details. However, an ambitious local has taken some video glimpses of it with a remote device which can be viewed in YouTube. It reveals such beautiful sculpture and architectural detail.
A Few Interesting Characters
(Patients’ names have been changed to protect their identities)
Fun-loving Frankie
Many of the patients I saw in Ruchill Hospital were bed-ridden with various diseases but that didn’t stop them from getting their fun in any way they could, often with a willing accomplice in a young male nurse. I had just started working at the hospital and being so young I was pretty naïve and innocent. On that first day, I was working with the male nurse attending to Frankie’s needs when the nurse took a tin of peanuts from the patient’s locker and asked me if I’d like one. I declined the offer as I didn’t feel comfortable taking anything that belonged to the patient. Then Frankie insisted I take some stating that he couldn’t eat them as he had no teeth. Neither of them would take no for an answer so I relented and took off the lid. However, I immediately let out a scream and dropped the tin when something suddenly leapt out at top speed. It was not a real tin of peanuts but a trick one with a large spring inside a leopard print cotton cover. The two pranksters were in fits of laughter. I was somewhat embarrassed but I was happy that Frankie had some fun that day. I thought these two must have tried that one on every ‘newbie’.
Flirty Phillip
Helena, a colleague, and three patients.
Phillip was a middle-aged man who suffered from motor neurone disease which left him paralysed from the neck down. However, he was always cheerful despite his physical limitations. When he had to be hoisted onto mobile apparatus to take him for his bath, he would sing out loudly and tell jokes. He was a very intelligent and well-educated man who would often quote poetry to me. He would always quote a line containing the phrase ‘eyes like limpid pools’ whenever I entered his ward. His teasing would embarrass me as I was only 19 years old then but he was a very nice man and I admired his long-suffering attitude and positivity. Recently, I tried to find out where this phrase came from and all I could find were these two possibilities:
An article in Esquire Magazine 1940
Bugs Bunny’s friend, Pepe Le Peue was fond of using this phrase
I’m not sure which one Phillip was referencing but I hope it was the former, otherwise he was really having fun at my expense-not that I mind as he was a lovable character.
Frail Florrie
Florrie was a very small elderly lady who suffered from a bone disease and looked even smaller being permanently hunched over. She didn’t speak much but liked to wander around the ward. One day she went missing. I had just come on duty so immediately joined the search party. Indoors and outdoors were searched thoroughly but to no avail. The police had to be called. Whilst awaiting their arrival, I checked through all the rooms again and ended up in a vacant room at the end of the ward. There were beds stacked along one wall and the rest of the room was clear. I stood there wondering where she could be when I heard a whimpering sound. The only place to look was under the beds and there Florrie was, curled up like a little field mouse right at the back. She was too far in for me to reach her so I called for the male Charge Nurse. He crawled under and brought her out to safety. Another call to the police was needed. I was just glad she was safe and sound.
A Sad State of Affairs
I tried to find out what had been happening at the Ruchill Hospital since I left the country and was deeply shocked and saddened at the conditions I saw it in: neglected, abandoned, forlorn and in a state of decay. My plan for a stroll around the grounds, taking a trip down ‘Memory Lane’ was now scuppered. It had closed on 3rd December, 1998. Through photographs that had been posted on Urbanglasgow.co.uk, I could see the conditions inside the hospital before its demolition.
The scenes captured in these photos showed a depressing situation. It was like the devastation after some natural disaster or war. The cracked walls and peeling paint at random depths resembled an aerial view of a parched land after a severe drought. Only the ceramic tiles remained intact. Lagging dangled from the exposed ceiling and roof like streamers abandoned after a party. Sunlight streamed through the many gaps in the roof. Debris from the collapsed roof was strewn over the floors. One photograph showed a collapsed ceiling with its multiple layers spilling through like a pack of cards suspended in mid-air, creating quite a surreal image. The rafters were still fighting the sagging roof above. Due to water ingress from the exposed roof which had been stripped of its lead, large puddles were dotted along all the corridors. The once beautiful and ornate staircases were in ruins. Some newels had survived though bent and twisted out of shape. The first few metres of a fire hose snaked under fallen rubble and thick layers of dust. A collapsed floor revealed one of the hospital’s service tunnels below. Many interior fittings had been torn out. All the buildings had suffered badly from vandalism too. A plain white clock mounted high on a wall had stopped at 9.30. ETA : Estimated time of abandonment?
With the many broken windows , the buildings had become a sanctuary for wildlife. Some people had reported seeing foxes in the grounds. No doubt, many other creatures such as mice, birds and squirrels, as well as an infinite variety of insects, would have taken up residence there. Their tiny heartbeats would be the only active pulses then.
Update
According to the Glasgow Times, October 2020 / August 2021, 403 homes are to be built on the hospital site ie. 160 flats across 10 blocks and 243 houses. There will also be 658 car parking spaces available. Most of the hospital buildings have already been demolished. Sections of the listed main staircase’s balustrade have collapsed and others are misaligned. The top west pier has collapsed and the ball finials from the bottom piers lost. It had been slated for demolition too but will now be opened up with a lighting scheme. Only the A-listed water tower will remain as the centrepiece of the housing estate and that area will be pedestrianised. Bellway Homes says it aims to, ‘deliver a bespoke residential development, providing much needed high-quality family homes to the area’ and ‘seeks to reach the highest standards in urban design…’. All the homes, built using red brick – a nod to the former hospital buildings - will be incorporated into mini neighbourhoods and are for private sale. To enhance the areas east and west of the site, two large parks and some smaller parks have been provided.
It is evident that the hospital buildings had become unsafe and beyond repair so it is understandable that they had to be demolished. However, we can look forward to seeing the beautiful housing estate that is planned for this historic site.
As for me, I’ll still take that walk around the new estate and picture in my mind’s eye the wards and other buildings that once functioned there.
Useful links
To take a virtual walk around the hospital corridors visit:
Ruchill Hospital - YouTube Film footage of derelict Ruchill Hospital, taken in May 2009
To view a large selection of still photos visit: urbanglasgow.co.uk
YouTube videos give a close up tour of the water tower
Trivia
The illustration on the cover of the invitation to the opening of the Ruchill Hospital is Balmoral Castle, not the hospital itself
Jessie McTavish, a nurse, was convicted of murdering a patient with insulin at the hospital in 1974
The filming of the BBC TV programme "Cardiac Arrest" (1994) was on location at Ruchill Hospital.
Series 1 & 2