Hospitals & Asylums

[Dexter St. Clair]

East Renfrewshire Council has a page on Mearnskirk Hospital at their site.

Mearnskirk

Glasgow Guide has a whole load of contributors who were born in all sorts of hospitals , homes for unnmarried mothers and brought up in care homes, and took holidays in residential schools.

They do blether on a bit.
http://discuss.glasgowguide.co.uk/forums.html

[applemaca]

no responses to this February posting, am I the only Mearnskirk survivor ?!

Nope! There're at least 2 of us.

As a kid I spent 13 months from July 1967 in ward 4a (Kids), 4b was a female ward if I remember correctly.
I remember when we kids were catching the rays out on the verandah, at the top of our voices we would scream "Flash your Siren" everytime an ambulance passed (the highlight of our day).
I also remember we could see the mortuary from our ward & would regularly see inmates that hadn't made their release date.
Happiest day of my life was being allowed to go home, wish I could say my stay had been a happy one.
Ironically I find myself a frequent visitor again as I have family live in the grounds of the old place now.

[moonbeam]

I was in Oakbank Hospital in 1948 just at the start of the NHS. Open coal fires in big open wards. January was very cold if I recall. They used to give out a bottle of Guiness to the older guys. My window looked out onto the Astoria cinema. Big red cinema sign.The old guy next me "pegged out" and his ration of Guiness was not opened. So I "hijacked it"and popped the empty back.I recall the ward sister drawing the curtains round his bed and saying "At least Albert had a wee drop of the Guiness before he went" I really felt guilty as hell for ages afterwards!!

[RDR]

Kelvingrove Museum have a display with artifacts and picture from some of the old Glasgow Asylums, but I always think a piece of work on old Glasgow Hospitals would be great, especially now that more of them are due to go in the next ten years. Half of Stobhill has gone, Victoria is due to go 2014-2016, but I suppose might get refurbed as housing and the older parts of the Southern General will get demolished as they build the new South Glasgow Hospital.
Parts of the Western and GRI were demolished years ago to allow them to build new blocks and some hospitals have disappeared altogether, like Oakbank, Robyroston, Phillipshill, Rutherglen maternity, Rottenrow, the original Beatson, Samaritin (though refubished as flats), David Elder, Belvidere, Ruchill (though still standing and derelict), the list goes on and on.
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde have an archieve, which holds papers but I don't know about pictures and if it is open to the public. I wonder if anyone has ever thought of doing a book.......

[moonbeam]

The "old" Sick Childrens Hospital in Drumchapel. Now gone. Knightswood Hospital. The "Levi" ie Leverndale. Blawarthill struggles on. Does anyone remember the "wee" fever hospital near the entrance to Clydebank and District Golf Club.

[RDR]

The "old" Sick Childrens Hospital in Drumchapel. Now gone. Knightswood Hospital. The "Levi" ie Leverndale. Blawarthill struggles on. Does anyone remember the "wee" fever hospital near the entrance to Clydebank and District Golf Club.

Leverndale is still there. Truncated and much smaller than it used to be but the infamous clocktower is still there.

[moonbeam]

Never will forget the "ear nose and throat" at the bottom of Elmbank St/ St Vincent St. Was flat on my back in the place and watched "Foinavon" win the Grand National on a ward TV.

[scaryman2u]

Never will forget the "ear nose and throat" at the bottom of Elmbank St/ St Vincent St. Was flat on my back in the place and watched "Foinavon" win the Grand National on a ward TV.

Did that move to Florence St in the Gorbals or were there two places ?

[moonbeam]

Dont know where the "ear, throat and nose" hospital went. It was to me a fairly modern red brick building with an entrance on St Vincent Street. I had two trips to the "theatre" which I recall as a white tiled place like a public lavatory. I spent three weeks in the place. Most folk only spent a few days. Weekends were really lonely. Two of the guys in my ward had "fluid drains" in their necks. They had those sort of turban bandages on. Anway they wrapped football scarves round their bandages and slipped out to watch the "Jags"! I dont think anyone noticed they had gone as they were back well before visting at 6.00 pm.

[RDR]

Never will forget the "ear nose and throat" at the bottom of Elmbank St/ St Vincent St. Was flat on my back in the place and watched "Foinavon" win the Grand National on a ward TV.

Did that move to Florence St in the Gorbals or were there two places ?

Two different places.
The chest clinic was at Florence Street, in the days of mass screening for TB. It became a health centre until the GPs moved out to Pine Place at Queen Elizabeth Sq. in the Gorbals (some improvement that was!! ) and is now a Psychiatric Day Care centre.

The ENT Hopsital was sold off for redevelopment and its specalist in patient services split between, the then new Gartnavel General, Victoria Infirmary, Stobhill Hospital and GRI. Subsequently with the change in surgical techniques and the need for less inpatient beds all in patient ENT work happens at Gartnavel with some at the Southern.

[skye44]

To leverndale...

I too was in Mearnskirk Hospital as a kid 1946/47/48 when I was three and left when I was six
maybe we know each other...

It was a great hospital you were well looked after I was very seriously ill but I will never forget the
care and attentionI got there they saved my life.. shame it has all been pulled down..

Nice to hear from someone else who had the same experience

[Squeeky]

Kelvingrove Museum have a display with artifacts and picture from some of the old Glasgow Asylums, but I always think a piece of work on old Glasgow Hospitals would be great, especially now that more of them are due to go in the next ten years. Half of Stobhill has gone, Victoria is due to go 2014-2016, but I suppose might get refurbed as housing and the older parts of the Southern General will get demolished as they build the new South Glasgow Hospital.
Parts of the Western and GRI were demolished years ago to allow them to build new blocks and some hospitals have disappeared altogether, like Oakbank, Robyroston, Phillipshill, Rutherglen maternity, Rottenrow, the original Beatson, Samaritin (though refubished as flats), David Elder, Belvidere, Ruchill (though still standing and derelict), the list goes on and on.
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde have an archieve, which holds papers but I don't know about pictures and if it is open to the public. I wonder if anyone has ever thought of doing a book.......

You mentioned about the NHS archives, I don’t know about the other Glasgow hospitals but for the Victoria Infirmary the archives they hold are only about how many patients each ward held, the type of ward it was, mortality rates, types of treatments, etc. They have got a couple of maps of the Victoria Infirmary but nothing to write home about, the map was about 1960. The Mitchell has got some of the original architectural plan for different renovations over the years from about 1899 onward until I think about 1940, these are amazing to see. Sadly though some how over the years the original plans for the Victoria Infirmary have been lost or destroyed, no one seems to know where they are or what happened to them
As for a book I know there was on wrote about the Victoria Infirmary called "The Victoria Infirmary of Glasgow 1890-1990, a Centenary History” Not sure who wrote it as it says on the book itself “edited by S D Slater and D A Dow” It was published in 1990 to celebrate the centenary of the hospital, I don’t know if it was ever on general sale or if it was just for hospital staff to purchase but if you can lay your hands on a copy it is fascinating read with some amazing photos in it. Its also cover a bit about Philipshill, Mearnskirk, Vicotia Geriatric unit and Rutherglen Maternity Hospital.

Now if someone would hand me skeleton key to the Victoria Infirmary and let me loose, *sigh* I can but dream!

[Guacho]

This book can be bought for £1 in the WRVS coffee shop beside the taxi rank

[dazza]

This book can be bought for £1 in the WRVS coffee shop beside the taxi rank

No, that's a booklet called "The Victoria Infirmary: Past, Present & Future" dated 2006 (though I'm sure it was published in 2008/9), which along with its Stobhill Hospital booklet counterpart is aimed at "raising profits to ensure that the new Victoria/Stobhill chaplaincy suits the religious and spiritual needs of all the patients, carers and staff" !!

The 1990 book "The Victoria Infirmary of Glasgow 1890-1990, a Centenary History”, was an in-house publication and is, by far, one of the easier Glasgow hospital books to find.

@Squeeky- The GGHBA only receive a certain amount of archival material if the hospital is still operational - as the Victoria is, and will continue to be. Perhaps when the old building finally closes they will have gathered a lot more, but a lot of it may well end up being stored at the new building.

[Bridie]

Never will forget the "ear nose and throat" at the bottom of Elmbank St/ St Vincent St. Was flat on my back in the place and watched "Foinavon" win the Grand National on a ward TV.

neither will I *shudder* it was awful
circa 1961/2 long queues of beds and kids waiting to go into the theatre as you describe - walls like toilets.
I was in a caged bed the cages probably not as high as memory has exaggerated but caged enough.
The boy next to me had a bandaged head as well with little bits of blood showing through. We all sat with the only smiley nurse there on a long bench singing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and moved down the bench like musical chairs as the last one was "snatched" into the operating theatre.
The rest of the nurses were mainly horrors including the one who took my comics and crayons and threw them in a cupboard and I never saw them again despite asking about a dozen times.
Apparently I also took ages coming out of the anaesthetic (no wonder) so they put a nurse next to my bed to watch me - her face like thunder when I came round.
She asked me if I wanted any ice cream and I had really been looking forward to that bit - I said "No" in a colossal huff.

I suppose they were rushed off their feet