King James VI Hospital

On this site King James I founded the Charterhouse or Carthusian monastery in Perth in 1429 for a prior and 12 monks. This was the first and only Carthusian Monastery founded in Scotland and James' intention seems to have been to encourage the reformation of religious life in Scotland and to develop a new, royal Mausoleum.

James I was buried in the church in 1437, following his murder in Perth. His widow, Joan Beaufort was buried there in 1445, and Margaret Tudor, widow of James IV and sister of Henry VIII of England, was buried there in 1541.

The monastery was destroyed at the Reformation in 1559.

The King James VI Hospital was founded by a Royal Charter granted on 9th August 1569 by James Stewart, Earl of Moray, Regent for King James VI. Various buildings and sites were used but in 1651 the last was demolished to provide stones for the Cromwellian citadel on the South Inch.

Between about 1651 and 1750 there appears to have been no hospital building until the present King James VI Hospital was built in 1749-50 at a cost of £1,614-10s-7d. The building is H-shaped, four stories high and surmounted by a belfry. It was to be a poorhouse, an industrial school, an infirmary and a reformatory for vagrants.

In 1814 the poor were no longer required to reside in the hospital, and a separate Perth Infirmary (now the A K Bell Library) was opened in that year. The building was then put to other uses: charity schools and various benevolent institutions, while other portions were let as dwellings.

In 1974-5 the building was completely refurbished and twenty-one flats were created.

Today was their bin day.