Craig House, Edinburgh
| Craig House | |
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New Craig House
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| Location | Edinburgh, Scotland |
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Listed Building – Category A
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| Official name: Craig House (Old) | |
| Designated | 14 December 1970 |
| Reference no. | 28046 |
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Listed Building – Category A
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| Official name: Craig House | |
| Designated | 28 August 1979 |
| Reference no. | 27736 |
Craig House is a historic house and estate located on Easter Craiglockhart Hill, between the Craiglockhart and Morningside areas of Edinburgh, Scotland. Old Craig House dates from the 16th century, and succeeded an earlier building. In the late 19th century it was purchased by the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, and the site was developed as Craig House Hospital, a psychiatric hospital, including substantial new buildings. Following refurbishment, the site was opened in 1996 as the Craighouse Campus of Edinburgh Napier University.
Craig House is recorded in the reign of King David II, and in 1528 the Abbot of Newbattle granted a charter here. The original house was burned down by the Earl of Hertford in 1544, during the Rough Wooing.
The present Old Craig House is dated 1565, although the architecture suggests a later date. It was built for the Symsounes of Craighouse. It later belonged to the Dick family, and was extended to the north-west around 1746. The historian John Hill Burton (1809–1881) lived at Craig House. In the 1880s it was described as "a weird-looking mansion, alleged to be ghost-haunted" in Cassell's Old and New Edinburgh.
In the 1880s, Dr Thomas Clouston, Physician Superintendent of the Edinburgh Lunatic Asylum (later the Royal Edinburgh Hospital), oversaw the purchase of Craig House by the managers of the Asylum in 1878. The site was intended for paying patients, and development was funded through the sale of land at the existing Asylum in Morningside. The new buildings at Craig House were planned by Clouston, and designed under the control of architect Sydney Mitchell in 1887 (whose father Dr Arthur Mitchell was on the board of directors at the asylum). The actual job architect responsible for the design was Charles Henry Greig rather than Mitchell himself, despite Mitchell being widely credited for the design. Work began in 1889 on the large main building, a hospital block, and three detached villas, all of which were complete by 1894. The main building, New Craig House, was intentionally grand, resembling a country house or hotel rather than an institution, and is reminiscent of the Viceregal lodge in Shimla. It is designed in a picturesque "free Renaissance" style, with elements taken from French Renaissance architecture. The interiors include a great hall and a billiard room.
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Wikipedia