The hospital was originally constructed in 1861 as Banff District Lunatic Asylum at Whitehills, just along from the northern coastal town of Banff. The hospital’s input of 44 patients in 1865 were the first of many to cross the threshold and live out their days in this relatively remote but attractive facility. Considered a modern and successful unit in the early 20th century providing a good standard of care and range of facilities, it handed to the control of the NHS in 1948 by which time it had expanded and patient numbers amounted to several hundred. The later addition of various wards and blocks in the 1960′s extended the capacity and range of care the hospital offered peaking at around 1000 patients on site ranging from the severely mentally handicapped to those with less severe learning difficulties. Whilst these villa-esque outbuildings gave a greater scope of care, they also over time give a sturdy granite-built phallus a flimsy, prosaic sixties-era flowery panty. I’m sure they were seen as a positive and attractive addition at the time but while the main buildings have stood the test of time, these smaller buildings have deteriorated horribly and lost any character they may have had never for it to return.
Since the hospital’s closure in 2003 (amid ongoing rumours of historic abuse and mistreatment of patients) the deterioration has been ably assisted by the local youths young and old who have seen the buildings as the ideal ground for exercising acts of mindless vandalism leaving the area unrecognisable. These factors, combined with the rumoured underhand purchase of a lot of the land by a company controlled by the brother-in-law of the Scottish First Minister of the time have left a sour taste in the final mouthful of Ladysbridge’s history. Demolition of the site is well underway at the time of writing as shown in some pictures and the area will re-emerge as Ladysbridge Village comprising 117 residential units including some community care housing. The main building is to be retained and converted into flats. Or should that be luxury apartments?
These pictures were taken in February 2009.
thank you to whomever took the time to publish these photos, I possess some very fond memories of this place during my time as a student nurse here. With the happy memories comes a sadness too from seeing Ladysbridge in such a way.
hi lee ann when was you a student nurse at ladysbridge hospital yvonne
i have a friend who was at ladysbridge and she was very badly treated so it good its gone really but very sad what the young and old youths have done to it i was there today and it is sad and very eary . my kids loved going to visit the site found it facinating because of its history
I’m going to Scotland with my mum and dad, are people allowed inside for a look around, because I love old buildings, and yeah it is a shame about the vandalism. But anyway I just wanted to know because I’d like to see inside (mum says I can go on my own). Are the rumours true about the mistreatment? Does anyone know?
If you go to the website Derelict Places you will see more photos of Ladysbridge Hospital
Yes, I have posted there in the past. And I have a link there in the links section. Thanks for visiting!
sorry i have to say that i have very very sad memories of that place not happy ones at all so all i can say is good on them for wrecking the place i for one dont believe in vandalism but what is more inportant wrecking the place or the abuse of the patients for many years it is 30 years to late for some patients who cant forget and so thumbs up to the wreckers should of been done 30 years ago then there would be no abuse
As Yvonne rightly says, the days of large institutions have passed in to history for the good of society. Never the less, there is a potential for abuse in any setting where people are vulnerable so we should not be complacent because the settings for providing care/support have changed.
It is very interesting to see the old place in its current state. The buildings were always maintained to a very high standard. I saw some pictures of the boiler room somewhere. That was always a fascinating secret world kept from all but the privelaged few. I believe that all the buildings were connected with a system of ducts that carried the ‘steam’ system which possibly supplied the large quantities of hot water for the kitchens and bathrooms, boiling water to make up the large urns of tea through the ‘Kalamax’and of course central heating. I remember the villas being very warm of a winters evening. Sad to see the Hydrotherapy pool has not been made use of.
The thought of the smell of hot milky tea and bread mixed together makes me think of approaching tea time at Ladysbridge and the beginning of the last lap of a 12 hour shift.
Yes, there were bad times and sad to say practice that we would not tolerate today. Driving to work the other week I heard that old Jeff Beck song. ‘Hi Ho Silver Lining’, and I instantly thought of the scene at the weekly disco in the main hall as a hundred pairs of feet stamped happliy along to Jeff Beck…. I’m sure there were some happy times too.
sorry to say but their were no good times in there how can anybody stick a needle in another person to knock them out cold you would nt get away with it today you would be going to the courts of human rights take a look at some of the residents of nazareth house they won their case for abuse by the nuns so should former residents of ladysbridge
We are all very lucky to live in more enlightened times and we all learn from our experiences, as did those who went before us. There is no doubt on both a national and international scale, that the health care field did not handle the introduction and continued use of medication in a balanced way and there is no doubt at all that people endured medication regimes that were not at all good for them. Coupled with a lack of understanding of behaviour, little concept of the construct of empathy and a long established culture of task orientation, the whole approach to serving the needs of people with learning disabilities or mental health issues did not stand a chance of being anything other than what we see today as being abusive. Having worked in other health care and social care establishments too, I can see that although true of Ladysbrige Hospital, it was not unique to Ladysbridge. I would add that most of the less good practice I have been aware of throughout the country was not at Ladysbridge. We learn as we develop our methods, practices and ways of influencing others so that the past is not simply repeated, but that indeed development takes place so that we can provide services to the standards of today.
I am surprised at how many people I have met who were once patients at Ladysbridge and yes we have noted the many things that were wrong with the system, but almost all have also shared fond nostalgic memories of holidays, outings,people who worked there and they felt made a positive difference in some way.
ok then it was a place for peaple with learning disabilities and mental health issues but there were peaple thet were sane as you and me that should nt of been in there who were wrongly put in there and has totally ruined their life right up until this very day the nightmare of that place will never be gone it will stick in peaple head and will take it to the grave with them
My point is that it was Mental Health legislation,systems, custom and practice that was wrong. The point of Ladysbridge’s existance, as we knew it, was to bring care practice for people with learning disabilities in to line with the 1960 Mental Health Act. In effect, it did little to improve what really mattered. Legislation and regulation have come on in leaps and bounds, especially in recent years. We shouldn’t single Ladysbrige out, or for that matter undermine the efforts of a lot of good hearted and well meaning individuals who worked there over the years. I know that not everyone there, or indeed in any other support/care service today is as well meaning and good hearted as we would expect. I have worked in that and other systems and have learned over time to choose role models carefully and keep questioning why we are doing what we do. It is surprising how easily we can loose the point of what we are hoping to achieve. One is either part of a problem or part of a solution and I have spent the greater part of my working life building on the baseline first gleaned at Ladysbridge, in supporting people to make positive differences and providing good quality person centred health and social care. Evolution:I’m sure we remember some of the horrors of educational institutions of thirty years ago and earlier. Thankfully there has been evolution there too. It doesn’t make what went before right in any way, but perhaps provides a measure of how far society’s values have developed.
You mentioned the folk who were ‘sane’. There were a number of individuals who were transferred to Ladysbridge from Kingseat Hospital at the outbreak of WW2, as Kingseat was taken over as an armed forces hospital. At the end of the war, they were never given the opportunity to return there. Also, because of the pre-1960 Mental health legislation as it was, a family could commit one of their own to a Lunatic Assylum for life, with no right of appeal or review. these poor folks were abandoned. Many were committed to the ‘Assylum’ as being ‘Morally Defective’. Which I am sure you know could mean absolutely anything that does not fit with anyone’s very subjective translation of the word ‘normal’. Things have evolved and Ladysbridge has its place in that evolution.
I read with interest the comments made above. I worked at Ladysbridge for 5 years and in that time never witnessed any mis-treatment of any of the residents. As Alan says some people were committed by their families and were unable to appeal that decision. I know that some of the residents didn’t want to leave and go into the community as they had been there so long that they were instituitionalised and the thought of living in a house was just too much for them.
There were of course some residents who may have had to be sedated, I for one experienced a rather unpleasent incedent when a male resident who, on my return from holidays, decided that he had to welcome me back – it took 3 male staff to get him off me as he was hugging me so hard that I couldn’t breath and he did get angry about it and was a danger to himself, the other residents and the staff.
I enjoyed the time I worked there and have a lot of good memories of the residents and the staff and it’s a shame to see Ladysbridge in the state it’s in.
hi tina how long ago did you work at ladysbridge just for curiosity thans
my friends and i were there last night! decided to take a trip in the dark! It was awful! as soon as we arrived there was a bad auora around the area, there were bats, old documentation lying around, fresh blood on the floor (alot of it at that just outside the gym hall), wet barefeet footprints on the gym hall floor and to top off the night 3 policemen jumped out on us and scared the living daylights out of all of us and escorted us from the premises for trespassing! I have never been so scared in my life! I felt like i was in a horror movie!