Prison or palace? Haven or hell? : an architectural and social study of the development of public lunatic asylums in Scotland, 1781-1930
Abstract
In 1897 John Sibbald, Commissioner in Lunacy for Scotland, stated that ‘the
construction of an asylum is a more interesting subject of study for the general reader
than might be supposed.’ This thesis traces the development of the public asylum in
Scotland from 1781 to 1930.
By placing the institution in its wider social context it provides more than a historical
account, exploring how the buildings functioned as well as giving an architectural
analysis based on date, plan and style. Here the architecture represents more, and
provides a physical expression of successive stages of public philanthropy and legislative
changes during what was arguably one of the most rapidly evolving stages of history. At
a time when few medical treatments were available, public asylum buildings created truly
therapeutic environments, which allowed the mentally ill to live in relative peace and
security. The thesis explores how public asylums in Scotland introduced the segregation
or ‘classification’ of patients into separate needs-based groups under a system known as
Moral Treatment. It focuses particularly on the evolving plan forms of these institutions
from the earliest radial, prison-like structures to their development into self-sustaining
village-style colonies and shows how the plan reflects new attitudes to treatment.
While many have disappeared, the surviving Victorian and Edwardian mega-structures lie
as haunting reminders of a largely forgotten era in Scottish psychiatry. Only a few of the
original buildings are still in use today as specialist units, out-patient centres, and
administrative offices for Scotland’s Health Boards. Others have been redeveloped as
universities or luxury housing schemes, making use of the good-quality buildings and
landscaping. Whatever their current use, public asylums stand today as an outward sign
of the awakening of the Scottish people to the plight of the mentally ill in the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
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