Leanchoil Hospital was similar in design to other hospitals built during the same period. In the late 1800s, the development of germ theory led to new thinking around the benefits of fresh air and sunlight. The influence of nurse Florence Nightingale was also very important. Nightingale is considered the founder of modern nursing for her pioneering work in improving hygiene standards and reducing the horrific death rates of wounded soldiers in the Crimean War. She gave her name to ‘Nightingale wards’ in hospitals, designed around the idea that hospital spaces required direct access to sunlight and fresh air to keep the wards disease-free.

Leanchoil Hospital was designed around this principle and the architect of Leanchoil Hospital Henry Saxon-Snell was a founding member of the Sanitary Institute, now the Royal Society of Health. The hospital had broad corridors on either side of a central block with a bay halfway along used as a small dayroom for patients. The wings each had two wards in high ceilinged rooms with windows that let in sun, light and ventilation. [Fig 1]. One ward had four beds and the other two beds and they shared a nurse’s room and bathroom. Space was provided at the front and sides for making beds and cleaning the areas. The wards were heated by ventilating stoves that were designed especially for the building.

The surroundings of the hospital were also designed to be a form of therapy and access to fresh air and comfortable surroundings was considered vital for patients to recover. [Fig 2]. At the 1898 Annual General Meeting of the Governors, the Chairman Sir George Campbell Macpherson Grant outlined a large spend of £500 on the grounds and construction of railings. He defended the costs as money well spent saying ‘… that it has brought the grounds into keeping with the hospital and nothing tended to promote recovery more than beautiful scenery’. [Fig 3].