Probably
the most important building in Glasgow, I was born there
.
Don't know if there was something in the water back then, but I'm told I was the only boy delivered at the time, and the nurses had to stop the other mothers constantly coming for a look. Must be a wummin thing
The Eastern District Hospital (usually known as Duke St Hospital) was built as a 240 bed acute hospital by Glasgow Parish Council and opened in 1904. It has been suggested that the hospital contained the first psychiatric assessment wards to be incorporated in a Scottish general hospital. In 1930 it was transferred to Glasgow Corporation and in 1948 came into the National Health Service under the Board of Management for Glasgow Royal Infirmary. A new maternity unit was added in the 1940s and upgrading of facilities continued through the 1950s. A psychiatric out-patients department was opened in 1970. Duke St was placed in the Eastern District of the Greater Glasgow Health Board in 1974. In 1977 the maternity unit was transferred to the new Rutherglen Maternity Hospital. Thereafter the hospital became a geriatric unit. It closed in 1992.
Map and layout on this page:
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~peter/workhouse/ ... sgow.shtml which says it closed in 1996. Not much other detail after a quick search though.
In later years, the best thing was to be a visitor. This meant a visit to the little white home-made sweet shop that used to lie between the hospital and the traffic lights. Their products were superb.
As the area was developed (that word again) the shop migrated across the junction and to the other side of the road. Although it looked very similar, the home-made aspect had gone and all it sold was the mass produced stuff.