An aerial view of the Southern General Hospital, c 1960. The clock tower of the original building can be seen on the right of the complex.
The Southern General Hospital is the descendent of the hospital of the Govan Poorhouse, originally located in the old cavalry barracks in Eglinton Street. The new 240-bed general hospital and a 180-patient lunatic asylum were built at the present site at Merryflats in Govan in 1872. Major extensions completed in 1902-1905 provided 700 more beds. The hospital was transferred from the management of the Govan Combination Parochial Board to Glasgow Parish Council in 1912 and passed to Glasgow Corporation from 1930 until the creation of the National Health Service in 1948. Upgrading of the hospital's facilities began in the 1950s and was capped with the opening of a new Maternity Unit in 1970 and the completion of the Institute of Neurological Sciences in 1972.
Between 1948 and 1974 responsibility for the hospital rested with the Board of Management for Glasgow South Western Hospitals and in 1974 it was transferred to the South Western District of the Greater Glasgow Health Board. The Southern General Hospital NHS Trust was created in 1992. This was replaced in 1999 by the Southern Glasgow University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Reference: Heatherbank Museum of Social Work, print 935
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow Caledonian University, Research Collections, Heatherbank Museum of Social Work
Keywords:
aerial views, asylums, clock towers, Govan Poorhouse, Greater Glasgow Health Board, hospitals, Institute of Neurological Sciences, maternity, National Health Service, NHS, poorhouses, Southern General Hospital, Southern Glasgow University Hospitals NHS Trust