Maternity Hospital and Nurses' Home, Bellshill (Gillespie, Kidd and Coia)

Job files, images and drawings related to project.

The new block of Bellshill Hospital sited adjacent to the existing hospital on the west side of Coatbridge & Bellshill Rd, was designed to replace & supplement the function obsolescent pavilion type units. The new block, therefore, whilst incorporating the major functions of a 120 adult bed units, was not a self-contained maternity hospital.

The accommodation, in a 7-storey block, provided for 40 ante-natal & 80 post-natal cases, out patients, ex-ray suite, sick & premature babies, main kitchen & central sterilising supply area. It was intended that the central sterile supply service, would serve several hospitals within the group. Because of the nursing & medical requirements a large proportion of the patient accommodation was single bed, each ward floor being divided into 2 ward areas at either end of the block with the services, kitchen, treatment room, etc common to both between. The bathrooms & utility rooms were contained in the centre of the block around ventilation wells thereby leaving the maximum freedom of external wall accommodation for priority use. The second floor was retained for the more intense medical procedures & contained the delivery rooms, obstetric & operating theatres & a recovery ward. Positioned in the centre of the building, this floor was readily accessible to the lying in wards above & the in-patients admission area on the ground floor.

The building, set in an enlarged depression of the site, was supported by a concrete raft over piles. The main frame was precast reinforced concrete with insitu ceiling & floor slabs containing embedded heating pipes. The building was clad externally with precast concrete facings related directly to the structural frame & which reflected the varying floor functions. The horizontal facings formed a continuous band of light coloured exposed aggregate. The dark smooth faced vertical facings, spanned between the horizontal bands & projected from the face of the building.

Mahogany, treated with a clear synthetic resin lacquer was used for all internal woodwork throughout.

The material has been arranged using original Gillespie Kidd and Coia project reference codes.

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Catalogued by Tracy Wilkinson, GKC Project Archivist/Mark Tripney, GKC Project Archivist

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