Did you know I grew up in the place that inspired the primary settings for the book Asylum Daughter?
The building I lived in no longer stands. Like much of Easterhouse, it has been flattened. Unlike other parts of the suburb, nothing has been built on that site. The land remains derelict, forgotten. Woodland sprawls behind where blocks of flats once stood. Bishop Loch stretches out within the woodland, then a little behind the loch stands the blackened sandstone twin towers of the old, foreboding, gothic administration building of Gartloch Asylum.
Since its establishment between the 1950s and 1960s, the suburb of Easterhouse is, unfortunately, more known now for drugs, gangs and poverty. Still, the area is historically significant to Glasgow (and Monklands), though being on the outskirts, it may seem unlikely. Bishop Loch (Bishop’s Loch of Bishoploch) was home to Iron Age communities. During medieval times, it was part of a vast estate owned by the Bishops of Glasgow. Check out the historic environment record of the site here.
Gartloch Asylum (inspired the fictional Lochwood Asylum in Asylum Daughter) was located by Bishop Loch, between Gartcosh Village and Easterhouse. Glasgow Council acquired Gartloch estate in 1889 to build the hospital. Receiving its first patients in 1896, after that, a tuberculosis sanitarium, and nurses’ home were built on the estate. The hospital supported the war efforts during WWII and then became part of the National Health Service when it was established in 1948. The hospital declined from the 1980s and closed in 1996, one year before her centennial. In her almost 100 years as a functioning asylum, Gartloch has stories to tell. Just before the closure, the hospital was used as the fictional setting of St Jude’s Hospital in the Scottish drama. ‘Takin’ Over the Asylum’ (staring one of my favourite doctors as a patient!). Explore the historic environment record for the hospital here.
In the present day, the estate is known as Gartloch Village. Several buildings were converted into homes and apartments, with new housing built around the site. The grade A listed Administration building still stands looking over the village, though derelict, it continues to deteriorate year-on-year.
Until the development of Gartloch village (and for some, even now), the spot was favoured by urban explorers and those who love the thrill of the mysterious and abandoned with the enticing ‘do not enter’ signs.
If you fancy exploring how I used this estate as my setting, pick up a copy of my psychological horror, Asylum Daughter, and let me know what you think! Bishop Loch also inspired the stage for two of the stories featured in A Life of Suicides.
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