HOSPITAL AT SEACLIFF

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29055, 18 November 1959, Page 24

HOSPITAL AT SEACLIFF

Work Started On Demolition

•‘The Press- Special Service _ DUNEDIN, November 17. The end is in sight for the grey walls, slate roofs and towers of Seacliff Mental Hospital. Demolition work is well under way on the centre block of the 80-year-old structure—once the Dominion's largest building. A few sparrows flutter about the vast, empty dining room, and the only sound now is that of workmen pulling slates off the roof.

Furnishings, fittings and windows have been taken out, and contractors are now concentrating on the roof tiling above the 110 ft by 44ft second-floor recreation hall. Already the hall gallery has been pulled down. ' The building’s construction has brought admiration for the architects and original builders. Roofing inside the hall contains valuable kauri timber. On the floor below is the hospital’s dining room, where 356 persons sat down to dine at the 1956 nurses’ graduation ball. This block has been empty for almost two years and a half, and as more accommodation becomes available at Cherry Farm, the site will be completely evacuated. No more buildings will be constructed at Seacliffe itself. The hospital is in an area where the ground is slowly slumping, and this was the reason for its being condemned. A line of movement passes the north end of the building, and the original north wing was demolished only five years after being built. After 1888 all construction at the hospital was c one in wood, and at the women’s reception quarters and ward the piles have sunk, but not with the same damaging effect as in the 500ftlong main hospitaL