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Addyman Archaeology
The Old Printworks
77a Brunswick Street
Edinburgh
EH7 5HS
Fraser House is located south-east of the Estate Avenue, which, after this building, changes from an estate road to the main hospital thoroughfare. The single-storey building is oriented roughly NNE-SSW. In plan it has a rectangular main block, with a central courtyard, from which two linear wings extend NNE and SSW. The outer skin of the building comprises red brick laid in stretcher courses bonded in concrete cement. Internal walls, where visible below surface treatment, have shuttered concrete outer skins. The main access, in the centre of the WNW elevation, is a recessed set of double doors below a protruding wood-panelled porch, which stands proud above the flat roof. The upper extents of the walls of the wings are clad in painted timber planking from the top of the windows to the roof line. All windows were shuttered with light-permeable metal sheeting, had simple brick surrounds and narrow wood or metal lintels.
Fraser House, opposite the playing grounds in relative isolation, is referenced as the ‘Adolescent Unit’ in records and seems to have housed teenaged patients. The southern area, between the SSW wing and main block of the building, forms an asphalted courtyard with a painted cement platform/play area. A concrete and rubble sandstone outdoor oven installation, on the southern fringes of this courtyard, creates a self-contained outdoor social space associated with the building.Trees screen the area from the adjacent Building 13: the Midway/Janie Hepple Physiotherapy Unit.
The main entrance leads to a vestibule, off which are the office, consultant’s room, and staff meeting room and library, with a toilet block facing them. A mosaic welcome sign decorates the vestibule. A set of double doors lead to the main internal corridor, which forms a loop in the main central section. The extended wings of the building appear to have become accommodation rooms.The central block comprises art therapy and activity rooms.
Around the central courtyard are the activity and therapy rooms. The internal corridor is decorated with a mural depicting film strips, presumably showing former residents in a variety of settings and activities. This mural had been vandalised and all visible faces scored over with black marker pen.The mural covers the wall and continues across to door surfaces. Many of the rooms off this corridor preserve fittings such as wall-cupboards, noticeboards, workbenches, sinks, wall murals and displays of artwork.