St. Nicholas Hospital
| St. Nicholas Hospital | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Construction Began | 1866 |
| Opened | 1869 |
| Current Status | Active |
| Building Style | Corridor Plan Echelon Plan |
| Architect(s) | W.L. Moffat (1864), J.W. Dyson (1892) |
| Location | Gosforth |
| Alternate Names |
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History[edit]
A new asylum for Newcastle was built in 1866 after a 50 acre farmstead was purchased at Coxlodge. The foundation stone for the new asylum was laid there in August 1866 and it opened, as Newcastle upon Tyne Borough Lunatic Asylum in July 1869, with 159 patients. By 1882 when it changed its name to Newcastle upon Tyne City Lunatic Asylum, the average number of patients had risen to 265. In 1884, the Commissioners in Lunacy gave permission to extend the hospital and the East and West Pavilions were completed in 1887, providing accommodation for an additional 80 patients.
Still numbers rose until in 1891 they exceeded 400. Again the City Council decided to enlarge the hospital to accommodate another 350 patients. Architects were invited to compete for the commission of a new separate building to the east of the existing hospital, to include a recreation hall and chapel, a residence for the Medical Superintendent, a new entrance lodge and 10 cottages for married attendants. 18 sets of plans were submitted and those of J W Dyson were accepted. It was not until the end of 1894, however, that the foundations were completed and 4 July 1900 that the new institution opened to a favourable reception from the press.
The Medical Superintendent's house, though, was never built. Extensions were again carried out in 1913, when two villa blocks for 40 patients each, and a Nurses Home were built. In 1914 patients were evacuated and the hospital became Northumberland No. 1 War Hospital for wounded soldiers, who were brought there by train. It was not handed back until 1921. In 1923, the verandah for Ward 9 was constructed and in 1925 a cinema room was added to the recreational facilities. Conditions in the 1920s, however, seem to have been generally grim for both patients and staff, with a poor diet and clothes, a strict regime and a lack of heating. Although a new admission hospital was suggested in 1931, no further extensions were built before the hospital was taken over by the National Health Service in 1948, when it changed its name to St Nicholas Hospital.
Overcrowding continued to be a problem into the 1950s, since the Interim Treatment Centre which opened in 1950 was dedicated to therapeutic and diagnostic techniques rather than a residential unit. Finally, in July 1954, the foundation stone was laid for the admissions unit planned in the 1930s, to provide another 118 beds, including two convalescent villas. This opened on 29 September 1956 as the Collingwood Clinic, where all new patients were admitted and had their treatment initiated. The program produced for its official opening expressed the wish that 'the great majority will depart recovered or relieved without seeing more than a glimpse of the old building', but recognized that 'perhaps a tenth of the total will need to spend longer at St Nicholas than Collingwood Clinic can accommodate'. The aim of the clinic was to have small wards, rather than the huge 80 or more bed wards of the main hospital, allowing the staff to know the patients intimately, 'by which means alone success in treatment of the long stay patient can be assured'.
