Queen Mary Home, Edinburgh. "Miramar", Crail, Fife

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Thrall
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Queen Mary Home, Edinburgh. "Miramar", Crail, Fife

Post by Thrall » Thu Feb 23, 2006 2:36 am

I have a registered envelope from 1924 sent to the first address in Edinburgh, then forwarded to the second in Crail. There is a suspicion that these were mental hospitals. Can anyone confirm this?

This won´t make or break a tree, but would be of considerable interest to the family concerned. Googling produced nothing that I could find.

Thank you,

Thrall

AndrewP
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Post by AndrewP » Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:50 am

Hi Thrall,

The Queen Mary Home that I can find online information about is the Queen Mary Nursing Home, later Queen Mary Maternity Home.

http://www.lhsa.lib.ed.ac.uk/catalog/re ... hb3s5.html

It seems to have been on the Chalmers Street side of the old Royal Infirmary (now a building site). It closed in 1973, but the building lived on as the South Lothian College of Nursing and Midwifery.

According to one article, one birth at the Queen Mary Maternity Home was Tony Blair in 1953.

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1404282004

All the best,

Andrew Paterson


TD

Thrall
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Post by Thrall » Thu Feb 23, 2006 6:21 pm

Thank you Andrew, looks like my father was right; "the boy´s a good looker, but a bad finder"; I probably didn´t go far enough on Google. And the QMNH in 1924 turns out to be the "Chalmers" as I think it was generally called in my hearing in the fifties and sixties. Perhaps good news, as it infers that my great aunt´s later decades of incarceration in mental hospitals had not started in 1924, but physical problems were the cause - perhaps preferable.

Thrall

AndrewP
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Post by AndrewP » Thu Feb 23, 2006 7:07 pm

Thrall wrote:... And the QMNH in 1924 turns out to be the "Chalmers" as I think it was generally called in my hearing in the fifties and sixties.
Hi Thrall,

Chalmers Hospital is a separate hospital a few hundred yards away in Lauriston Place at the top of Chalmers Street (on the west side of Chalmers Street). The description that I make out is that the Queen Mary Nursing Home was either on the east side of Chalmers Street, near the bottom end; or was in the Infirmary grounds, just off the east side of Chalmers Street. It was described as being beside the "Simpsons" (Simpson Memorial Maternity Pavilion).

All the best,

Andrew Paterson

Thrall
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Post by Thrall » Thu Feb 23, 2006 10:35 pm

Hi Andrew, thanks again for that correction; I remember references to the "Simpson" where I think my brother, as well as TB and a few others, was born.

I am right though in thinking am I not, that the indications are, that QMNH was a home/hospital for female patients, and not specifically, if at all, for the mentally ill.

Now for Miramar! ...... :?: Come on Fifers......... :wink:

Thrall

kenpatrick
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Re: Queen Mary Home, Edinburgh. "Miramar", Crail, Fife

Post by kenpatrick » Mon Feb 14, 2011 2:21 pm

Dear Thrall,

Sorry its taken 5 years to reply to your question, I came upon it quite by accident as I live overseas.

Miramar in Crail, Fife, is now a three storey block of flats. My parents bought the top flat in 1963, and it has remained in the family since. The origin of the building was indeed a hospital, and I remember from my early years in the flat the outlines of numbers on each of the internal doors (which were obviously hospital rooms). My recollection was that it was a hospital for the nearby airfield, from which torpedo laden aircraft first launched themselves off the cliff at the end of the runway. This proved so unreliable that the original two storey building was added to (hence the top flat) so as to provide more rooms for recuperating airmen.

The condition of the building has deteriorated, especially the hastily added 3rd floor, and there are plans to redevelop this site.

I am sure I have photos of the building if you are interested.

Hibee
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Re: Queen Mary Home, Edinburgh. "Miramar", Crail, Fife

Post by Hibee » Mon Feb 14, 2011 2:44 pm

Hi

There's a building matching this description in Marketgate, Crail, on Google Earth. A third storey has been added to it.

It's the one with 8, or so, wheely-bins in the front garden.

Hibee
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Thrall
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Re: Queen Mary Home, Edinburgh. "Miramar", Crail, Fife

Post by Thrall » Mon Feb 14, 2011 11:03 pm

Thank you Ken and Hibee for your input. I think that tidies up one corner of the tree.

Why this envelope with no contents should have been kept for over eighty years is a mystery, but I will not lose sleep over it; there are lots of much more pertinent questions unanswered. Now where did I leave my spade?

Guid hunting,

Thrall

ValD
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Re: Queen Mary Maternity Home

Post by ValD » Thu Mar 17, 2011 9:36 am

Hi Andrew

I found this post when Googling my place of birth; it is called the Queen Mary Maternity Home on my 1944 birth certificate. It was in Chalmers Street, somewhere I have photographs that I took in the 1980s when it was disused but still standing, I'll try and find them. Looking on Google Maps Street View now shows a building site.

Thanks for the link about Tony Blair - amazing!

Do you know if I might be able to gain access to the Lothian Health Authority Achives?

Regards
Val

Volker Rafflenbeul
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Re: Queen Mary Home, Edinburgh. "Miramar", Crail, Fife

Post by Volker Rafflenbeul » Wed Jul 04, 2012 8:10 am

Hi,

I am in possession of 2 photos of the "Queen Mary Maternity Home" in Chalmers Street in Edinburgh, dated about 1969. If anyone is interested please let me have an e-mail-address - I will promptly send the photos.

Regards
Volker
mail: volker AT rafflis DOT de

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