Edit What do you know about Yorkhill?
Yorkhill is a district on the north of the River Clyde in the West End of the city. It is known for its famous hospitals; the Royal Hospital for Sick Children and the Queen Mother's Maternity Hospital.
The ancient name of the lands was Over Newton. It is thought that a small Roman station existed on Yorkhill.
In 1868, while workmen were trenching ground on the summit of the hill, where faint indications of earthworks had long existed, they found Roman remains. These included several brass Roman coins (one of which was of Trajan), bronze finger-rings and fragments of Samian pottery. This discovery was interesting because previously almost no traces of Roman footsteps had been found in what is now Glasgow.
In the early 19th century, the lands of Over Newton belonged to George Bogle and Robert Barclay. The westmost section of Over Newton became the property of Robert Fulton Alexander, a merchant who, in 1805, erected a mansion on the hill.
In 1813 the mansion and grounds were sold to Andrew Gilbert, another merchant, who purchased other adjoining lands and included these and the mansion under the general title of Yorkhill. The whole Yorkhill estate was left by him to his niece, Jane Gilbert, when he died in 1838. She had married the painter John Graham in 1834 and when Mrs Graham inherited her uncle’s estate, her husband assumed the surname Graham-Gilbert. In later years he worked from a studio in Yorkhill House and on his death his collection was left to the City of Glasgow.
In 1914, the estate was acquired by Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Sick Children, and Yorkhill House was demolished to make way for their new hospital. The new hospital was opened in 1916 by King George V. In 1940, all the patients at the RHSC were evacuated after the cruiser HMS Sussex, berthed at Yorkhill basin, was hit by German bombers.
In 1966, the Queen Mother's Maternity Hospital opened on the Yorkhill site adjacent to the RHSC. In 1966, the RHSC was relocated to Oakbank Hospital and the original hospital was demolished to make way for a new hospital. It was reopened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1972.
In 1868, Yorkhill Quay was built on the river and the Yorkhill Basin added in 1907. The eastern section of the district is residential, comprising traditional Glasgow sandstone tenements and includes the Kelvin Hall to the north.
Royal Hospital for Sick ChildrenThe Royal Hospital for Sick Children Yorkhill, Glasgow ( 55°52′00″N, 4°17′48″W) specialises in Pediatric healthcare. It is commonly referred to simply as Yorkhill. The hospital provides care for newborn babies right up to children around 13 years of age, including a specialist Accident and Emergency facility.
The hospital was originally completed at Garnethill in 1882 and opened on 20 December as the Hospital for Sick Children. It took almost 22 years to come to fruition due to a dispute with the University of Glasgow regarding a suitable site.
When opened, the hospital had 58 beds. On 8 January 1883, the hospital admitted its first patient, a 5-year-old boy with curvature of the spine.
A further 16 beds were added in 1887 when Thomas Carlyle converted a house next door into an annexe. The hospital was given Royal patronage in 1889 when the prefix was added to its title.
The hospital was suffering from a chronic lack of space by the 1900's and as a result a new site at Yorkhill was chosen for the replacement hospital building. Designed by John James Burnet, the new building opened in July 1914.
In 1966, the Queen Mother's Maternity Hospital opened on a site adjacent to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children. Also in that year, the Royal Hospital for Sick Children was temporarily relocated to the former Oakbank Hospital buildings in Maryhill in order to facilitate the demolition of the existing building, which was discovered to be suffering from severe structural defects.
The new Royal Hospital for Sick Children building was reopened at Yorkhill by Queen Elizabeth II in 1972 and coupled with the Queen Mother's Maternity Hospital, effectively established a national centre of integrated Obstetrics and Pediatric healthcare. A new operating theatre complex opened in 1998 and a new Intensive Care Unit opened in April 2005.
The Hospital currently has 266 inpatient beds, 12 daycase beds, and handles approximately 90,000 out-patients, 15,000 in-patients and 7,300 daycases every year. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are planning to close the Queen Mother's Maternity Hospital and re-locate the Royal Hospital for Sick Children to the Southern General Hospital site in Govan (which is being comprehensively redeveloped) where it is planned to open in 2011.
The new £100 million hospital will be integrated with the existing Maternity unit at the Southern General Hospital as well as the existing Adult Hospital facilities.
Be the first person to comment on this entry.