Western General Hospital
Western General Hospital 1932 to present day
- 1868-1885 St Cuthbert's and Canongate Poor House.
St Cuthberts Poorhouse (with its typical clock tower) was opened on the 21st
December 1868. This map shows the location of the Poorhouse as it was in a diagram
dated 1868.
This shows the extensive buildings (Craigleith Sandstone is reported to
have been used in the construction) that were described as St Cuthberts
Poorhouse surrounded in those days with wide open spaces.
The ground was acquired from the Fettes Trustees and consisted of ten
acres of farmland at Porterfield, Craigleith. The roadway up to the present
Outpatients is still called Porterfied Road.
Notice the curved row of houses, Moredun Crescent, between the Poorhouse and the side entrance to Fettes. The row of houses was believed to have been built to stop the "Fettes Boys" from "seeing into" the Poorhouse.
- 1885-1895 St Cuthbert's.
- 1895-1914 Craigleith Poor House.
- 1914-1918 2nd Scottish General Hospital Craigleith.
- Craigleith Poor Law Hospital Intermittently in various reports.
- Craigleith Hospital Intermittently in various reports.
- 1902 Governors House.
- 1912 Childrens Hospital and smaller building next to it built. Both red brick similar to Nurses Home.
- 1935 Gatehouse modified to allow ambulances to enter.
- 1936/37 Nurses Home built.
- 1937 Recreation Hall started to be built. Demolished in 1994.
- 1938 Reconstruction of Hospital deferred.
- 1938 new boiler house was built.
- 1939/45 Childrens Hospital became the Paderewski Hospital for Polish combatants and civilians. Paderewski was a Polish National hero and world famous pianist.
- 1939 Pathology Block built.
- 1950 Paderewski Hospital becomes the casualty and OP department. Building surrounded by trees bottom right in photo below.
- 1952/56 Radiotherapy Unit and related wards built.
- 1952/60 Surgical Neurology Unit built. Large four storey building in front of the Crescent in photo below.
- 1959 Central Microbiological Unit built. Long building at the back entrance onto Telford Road. See photo below.
This photo to the left is of the WGH site in the 1960s
Can you find the original boiler house and chimney and then the second boiler house and chimney?
The third boiler house and concrete chimney is to be built in the space top right of photo above just below Telford Road.
- 1964 Kidney Transplant Unit built. Bottom centre of photo above showing bridge from Transplant Unit into Radiotherapy Unit.
- 1966 Boiler House (No.3) and Laundry with concrete chimney built demolished and rebuilt. Just out of shot at top of photo above. Can just make out laundry wall and to its right and down is what remains of Boiler house No.2.
- 1966/68 Outpatient Casualty and Diagnostic block built Large rectangular building just off centre in photo above.
- 1968 Human Genetic Building (1st building) built. Whitish four storey building second in from right centre of photo above.
- 1969 Scottish Health Centre for research into Hospital design built.
- 1969 Haematology/Biochemistry Laboratories built on ground in front of clock tower.
- 1970/72 Human Genetics Block 2nd building built. Moredun Crescent buildings demolished to make way for it.
- 1974 Extension to Scottish Health Centre built.
- 1975 Cyclotron Unit built.
- 1980 Medical Oncology Unit (prefab) erected.
- 1988 Alexander Donald Building built. Large H building to left centre of photo below.
What the WGH site looked like in the 1980s
Built in the last few years
- Infectious Diseases Unit Built to the left of the Alexander Donald Building. Top left of photo above.
- Molecular Medicine: Built into space middle right side of photo just in front of Paderewski building.
- Anne Ferguson Building: This is built into where the the Nurses home and small recreational hall were along with another 'green' area.
- ICRF Building: Built into space bottom right where the car park spaces are marked out!!!!
2003 on
The Hospital has doubled if not trebled the space it originally was built on. It has reportedly something like 3,500 staff working on site which includes Hospital as well as Research Laboratories. And still no signs of a decent car park although a multi- storey car park was talked about but not recently.The surrounding districts residential areas appear to have taken on the facility of a car park but as a result of very bad and heavy parking there will be the possibility of an introduction of a Controlled Parking Zone with its ..No Parking...Daily Tickets and Residential Parking only on payment of an annual fee.
Lots of information is available on the present day facilities of the Western General Hospital at the following web site: http://www.lhsa.lib.ed.ac.uk
A book entitled A History of the Western General Hospital by Martin Eastwood and Anne Jenkinson 1995 gives a detailed description of the Western General Hospitals' involvement in medicine since 1868. Anne is a long time resident of Craigleith and the above book can be borrowed from public libraries