Hartwood Hospital Nurses Home, Hartwood

Extensive, 3-storey and attic, U-plan, Baronial-style nurses residential home. Bull-faced snecked rubble; rendered at attic floor; ashlar dressings; deep basecourse. Moulded and corbelled parapets; prominent crowstepped gables; stone balustrades and terrace.

The 1926 former nurses' home is a large imposing building with good stone detailing in Scots Baronial style set within the grounds of the former Hartwood Hospital (see separate listing). The nurses home is an important (slightly later) component of the remaining buildings of the former Hartwood Hospital complex and has purposefully followed the quality and style of the 19th century buildings on the site. The hospital was opened in 1895 with the architect James Lochhead becoming responsible for the subsequent expansion of the hospital site from circa 1904 with the new sanatorium, new reception block in 1916, and male staff hostel in 1936. The main Hartwood Hospital building block with central towers with side wings was designed and built from 1890 by the local architect J L Murray from Biggar as the Lanark District Asylum covering the Lanarkshire area. The 1857 Lunacy (Scotland) Act required all areas to build a District Asylum for its 'pauper lunatics'. The need for more diverse classification of the patients and the better management of different types of psychiatric conditions in the late 19th century led to a wider variety of building types and plans for hospitals built during this period. Hartwood was purposely built on an isolated site for exclusion. The initial build took five years to complete at a cost of £153,000, opening on 14th May 1895 and able to house 420 residents. The industrialisation of the surrounding area boosted the local population and resident numbers rose accordingly reaching 960 by 1913. By the mid 1950s Hartwood Hospital was a fully independent site which had created a hospital "village" with a variety of facilities including a bowling green, arcade of shops and a dancehall. The village system of patient care, exemplified by the Alt-Scherbitz hospital, near Leipzig in Germany in the 1870s encouraged psychiatric patients to be cared for within their own community setting. Hartwood was the largest asylum in Europe housing 2,500 residents. The introduction of the 1990 Community Care Act resulted in psychiatric care moving to the community and subsequent redundancy for the Hartwood Hospital buildings. From 1995 the hospital buildings moved to administration only and were totally vacated in 1998 to the nearby Hartwoodhill Complex. The majority of the later ward blocks on site were demolished during this period leaving only the main towers and flanking blocks and the ancillary buildings to the rear. Those that remain were damaged by fires in 2004 and 2011 with further damage by vandalism. James Lochhead (1870-1942) was a local architect in the Lanarkshire area and carried out many public commissions. In 1898 he went into partnership with Alexander Cullen of Hamilton and their first major project was Hamilton Municipal Buildings commissioned in 1903. List building record updated following review in 2013. (Historic Scotland)

February 2008: 1996: The hospital is vacated. July 1997: External inspection reveals problems with the guttering. Windows on the ground floor are boarded-up, but the threat of vandalism remains. December 1997: The hospital is now partly occupied on short term lease by a television company. North Lanarkshire Council is investigating the removal of sandstone from the wings. February 1998: James Lochhead‘s nurses‘ home is soon to be vacated by Bell College, and the building will be marketed. August 1998: A planning application is submitted for the hospital‘s change of use into Lanarkshire Media Centre. November 1998: A draft planning brief is completed for Lanarkshire Healthcare NHS Trust by GVA Grimley International Property Advisors. The owners are now to seek the approval of the brief by local planners, allowing marketing to commence. January 2002: The planning brief is approved. March 2003: Local planners report that no subsequent discussions have been held. May 2004: The main towers are gutted by fire.

March 2008: External inspection finds the roof in need of maintenance to address the lost slates and blocked valley gutters. The ground floor windows are boarded up. Upper floor window panes are smashed.

August 2010: Local planners advise they are currently working with NHS Lanarkshire to identify the best way forward for the overall site. Whilst this process is underway, the buildings that make up the site have been removed from the market.

17 December 2014: External inspection finds the roof has deteriorated further and metal theft has occurred at the site. The complex is very damp.

5 May 2016: A member of the public reports unauthorised accessing of the buildings continue.

10 April 2018: NHS Lanarkshire website notes (accessed 10/4/2018) the former hospital site has been sold to the Taylor Group Scotland Limited.

18 March 2020: Listed Building Consent for demolition of flat roofed extension and outbuilding to the general stores complex was conditionally approved in Oct 2019 (19/01139/LBC). Supporting documents within the application note the hospital site has been purchased by a development company committed to the restoration of the former hospital and nurses home in the longer term. They have identified temporary uses for the sites, including use of the nurses home site by Fire and Rescue Scotland, to deter the ongoing vandalism across the site.