The front of the original Southern General Hospital building, c 1975. The former poorhouse block with its clock tower is in the centre, flanked by hospital wings.
The Govan Combination Poorhouse (erected by the parishes of Govan and Gorbals "in combination") was built on the Merryflats Estate in Shieldhall in 1872 and contained a poorhouse, asylum and hospital to serve the needs of the two parishes. In 1896 the asylum patients were transferred to the new Hawkhead Asylum (later renamed Leverndale Hospital), and the poorhouse was subsequently closed before major extensions were made to the hospital in 1902-1905.
The presence of poorhouse, asylum and hospital on the same site had made the transfer of patients between the different categories easier. As was common in Victorian times, there was strict segregation of inmates, who were treated according to their category. Not only were patients who were classified as "quiet" separated from those who were "noisy", but those who were "of good character" were kept apart from those deemed "dissolute".
Reference: Heatherbank Museum of Social Work, print 937
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow Caledonian University, Research Collections, Heatherbank Museum of Social Work
Keywords:
clock towers, Govan Combination Poorhouse, Hawkhead Asylum, hospitals, institutions, Leverndale Hospital, lunatic asylums, mental health, mental hospitals, Merryflats Estate, paupers, poor relief, poorhouses, psychiatric hospitals, Southern General Hospital
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