Woodilee Hospital

Woodilee Hospital
The derelict central building in 2007
Location of the hospital in East Dunbartonshire
Geography
Location	Lenzie, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland
Coordinates	55°55′44″N 4°08′25″W / 55.9289°N 4.1404°W / 55.9289; -4.1404Coordinates: 55°55′44″N 4°08′25″W / 55.9289°N 4.1404°W / 55.9289; -4.1404
Organisation
Care system	NHS
Hospital type	Psychiatric hospital, teaching hospital
Affiliated university	University of Glasgow
Services
Beds	1,250
History
Founded	22 October 1875
Closed	2000
Links
Lists	Hospitals in Scotland

Woodilee Hospital was a psychiatric institution situated in Lenzie, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It opened on 22 October 1875 as Barony Parochial Asylum.

In 1869 the Parochial Board of the Barony Parish of Glasgow set up a special committee, under Andrew Menzies of Balornock, to examine the problem of the provision of asylums in Glasgow. The Board of Lunacy favoured asylums in the countryside that offered a peaceful refuge from a hostile world for vulnerable people and gave them opportunities for employment and activity. It was a radical idea which no other Parochial Board had tried, and so before the committee could consider it they first had to clarify the law. After resolving that they could legally build a separate asylum for "pauper lunatics", a site was chosen at the junction of Woodilee estate and Lenzie Junction on the Glasgow to Edinburgh railway. It extended to 167 acres (0.68 km²), larger than the Board wanted, but at £58 per acre it was cheaper than any other site. By March 1871 they had their estate.

Seven architects tendered for the contract and James Salmon, Sons and Ritchie of West George Street in Glasgow were appointed. By the autumn the plans were approved and the main contractor, James Grant Jnr and his sub-contractors were engaged. Work was formally started in November 1871 when Andrew Menzies cut the first sod. A railway siding to bring building materials, and later to supply the finished hospital, was laid into the site from the adjacent line. It was completed in time for the ceremony to lay the foundation stone on 4 October 1872, when a special train brought the guests out from Glasgow to a temporary platform erected specially for the occasion.

The first patients were moved into Woodilee on 16 September 1875 and a month later, on 22 October 1875 the new ‘Barony Parochial Asylum’ was officially opened.

The patients coming from other institutions found a vastly different culture at Woodilee. Under the pioneering influence of the first Medical Superintendent, Dr James Rutherford, doors were not locked and instead of prison-like wards, chemical and physical restraints, patients were given work to do. There were a variety of activities ranging from craft and hand work to physical work in the grounds, wards, laundry or on the farms servicing the hospital. After their exertions the patients could wander freely in the grounds.