# Ladysbridge Hospital (Banff District Lunatic Asylum) - Feb 2009



## wolfism

Visited with Alir147, Foz, V70 and Commander as part of the Aberdeenshire meet-up. Ali has been to Ladysbridge several times, but was still given a fright on occasion by Foz’s “siren”. You have *got* to change that ring-tone!

















Ladysbridge is one of the most physically remote asylums in Britain, an hour’s drive from its nearest neighbours – Craig Dunain in Inverness, Dr. Gray’s at Elgin, and Kingseat outside Aberdeen. It was redeveloped in 1969 by the North-Eastern Regional Hospital Board (back in the days when health boards employed their own architects, rather than using consultants). I've seen some dull-looking photos of Ladysbridge's 1960's-era buildings, and those put me off until now … but I guess you have to feel sympathy towards Modernist buildings, and have an eye for their proportions and details. In fact, the quality of light here is good: it’s close to the North Sea, the site slopes towards the coast, and it becomes “luminous” when the sky is bright.
















The site consists of the original Ladysbridge Hospital, which was one of the earlier district asylums, and had its roots elsewhere in Banffshire in 1858 - although it was founded formally in 1863 at Whitehills, a coastal village a couple of miles outside Banff. The original buildings were designed in a Tudor Gothic style by Alexander and William Reid, built using local grey granite, and are stoutly-constructed to resist the North Sea gales that come howling along the coast. The asylum opened in May 1865, accomodating 90 patients and costing £12,000 to build. It later absorbed the Woodpark Succursal Asylum in 1889, and later extensions to Ladysbridge included a villa for male patients in 1903. It was vested to the NHS in 1948, who re-developed it in the Sixties, and was still in use as a 600-bed psychiatric hospital in the 1980s - eventually ending up in the hands of Grampian Primary Care Trust*in 1999.
















The 1960’s redevelopment created a series of freestanding villas which are generic 1960’s style, majoring on plain facades with ribbon windows, and flat roofs with monitor rooflights poking up above them. The laundry has a barrel-vaulted roof, quite unusual, and there is an asylum main hall which looks very similar to a school hall of the same period. Institutional. I did a double-take when I went in, as it closely resembled the scale and detailing of my primary school’s hall … shades of Hunstanton School for those people who know the Smithsons’ work. The long-stay villas catered for around 48 people each, and were in use until the hospital began to run down in the 1990’s. Ladysbridge was latterly used to care for people with learning difficulties, in other words the less severely-handicapped. Modifications were made, including what looks like a hydrotherapy pool and “Snoezelen” therapy suite, which used stimuli like colour, light and sound to calm the patients. 
















Despite that, an asylum wasn’t felt to be an appropriate environment for them, so after the implementation of “community care” policies, Moray Council and NHS Grampian tried to reduce numbers and the hospital finally closed in 2003. After decommissioning, around 350 former patients were supported in the community in their own tenancies, or in care homes. After closure, there was a media furore about the terms of the sale - the majority was bought in 2006 by a developer at “open market value”, while another area with five nurses’ homes (two pairs of semi detached houses, one detached house and a parcel of land) was sold for a token £1 to a company owned by the brother-in-law of the former Scottish First Minister, Jack McConnell. Raised eyebrows all round … after a bit of digging, I discovered that the running costs in its last year were £3.85m – some contrast between expensive day-to-day reality, and low expectations of the site's worth. Not for the first time, it looks like a former asylum was virtually given away.
















At the moment, a very slow process of stripping-out is progressing, while at the same time, the Banff neds are methodically smashing each window, and copper thieves have paid a visit, too. As I walked around the hospital, a dim light came on in the far recess of my head, and I realised that a couple of years ago I talked to the former consultant clinical psychologist who was once in charge of Ladysbridge. He was a fund of knowledge, so I’ll need to dig out his details and have a chat with him again and try to get a better insight … but I seem to recall that he knew or worked with R.D. Laing at one point. Laing was the psychologist who rejected psychoanalysis in favour of existential explorations of our “dual unity”, and in taking mind-opening drugs like LSD and mescaline after the manner of Aldous Huxley. Nothing so edgy was evident at Ladysbridge when we visited.


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## Alir147

Wolfism. that is almost definitely the best report i have seen for ladysbridge. Very interesting reading. I have a great deal of info too from the superindents reports I might add later.

You really have done justice to a pretty shagged site. Welldone


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## wolfism

Cheers mate – I'm glad we visited, it turned out better than expected. 

Look forward to reading about the superintendant's reports; meantime, I'll need to dig out the details of the clinical psychologist and ask him some probing questions.


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## Mr Sam

epic stuff mate real nice shots as allways


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## ThaBoneDaddy

Great report!

I'm interested in finding out more about the history of Ladysbridge...I was wondering Wolfism if you or any of the other members could share some of your documentary sources on the history of the asylum, I'd be greatly appreciative!

BoneDaddy


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## wolfism

Thanks. Unlike some other asylums I've visited, I couldn't find any books on Ladysbridge, so I relied on what I could find on the net, a few newspaper cuttings, and snippets of the conversation I had with the consultant. 

As most institutions like this did publish a history to commemorate their 75th/ 100th/ 125th or whichever anniversary, there may be something out there - and if you're local to the area, it might be easier to find.


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## lost

Excellent report, I think I missed this first time round.
I think Pete on here of the countyasylums.com website might be hoarding some information about Ladysbridge, it was him who gave me the lead in the first place.
I found a 1950s or 1960s era asylum planning book in the basement, I wish I'd got some photos of it, it was well illustrated. The new parts of Ladysbridge followed one of the designs in the book to the tee.


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## Gorecki

Yeah I got a message through my website from someone whose Mum worked there, they were holding a renunion last year and there were posters up about it in the CO-Op and other shops around Banff... 
I was going to go ... but completley forgot and then when I remembered, it was too late. 

Also, I have the phone number for a man. His name is Neil and worked there for many years. I bumped into him a few times, well 3 times, when I used to go up there to get photos - as he walks his dog on the land and looks after the construction site, I think... anyway, we got chatting. He left me a note on my car windscreen saying if i ever want more info on the place to call him! ... 
I think Alir has phoned him for a chat


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## ThaBoneDaddy

Thanks for the feedback folks!

I've done a bit of digging on the Net and have some jumping-places to try....

The National Archives' Hospital Records Database had the following entry

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/details.asp?id=1474&page=20

It mentions that the hospital's records are held at the Northern Health Services Archives in Aberdeen, so I'm going to check that out next week. Also found the architects, Alex and William Reid on the Dictionary of Scottish Architects' site...that led to a refence in the 1863 Aberdeen Journal which I'll try and chase down at the Central Library whilst I'm in town. Will update!


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## havoc

Nice report as always W.


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## psketti

I used to work here as a domestic many moons ago. Sad to see the state it's in now.


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