Celebrating One Hundred Years of Good Health for the People

2023 sees the hundredth anniversary of the opening of the Astley Ainslie Hospital, when the first patients, 14 women and girls, came in from the Royal Infirmary to convalesce.

They suffered serious illnesses, which had proved difficult to cure, like tuberculosis, and the Astley Ainslie has played a leading role in giving a good life to many thousands of people then and since.

The site in south Edinburgh, known as the lands of Canaan, is a green, tree-filled slope facing the sun and the hills. It has a long and fascinating history, from the gift of the lands to the City by King David I in the 12th century, to the lethal sickness of the sixteenth century, which saw the establishment of a plague hospital and the building of a chapel to St Roque (the patron saint of plague victims) there.

By the nineteenth century, the houses and gardens on the land, were occupied by an extraordinary range of people, who led the way to our own good health and planted trees from all over the world.

In the 1920s, the land was bought for a convalescent hospital by the generosity of David Ainslie, who left a large sum to fund it, in memory of John Astley Ainslie – his nephew who had, tragically, died young.

The War interrupted the good work. And the government set up the National Health Service, taking on the hospital and its handsome funding – by far the largest in Scotland. The NHS has worked well with the hospital and its green lands in the following seventy years, and it has seen many triumphant innovations.

For further information on the history of the Astley Ainslie see here.

This impressive history will be celebrated this year by the NHS and by AACT itself. The celebration will engage with the landscape, planting new trees, setting up exhibitions, engaging with staff and patients, both retired and currently on the site - considering the history, people’s stories, creative possibilities. We hope you will join in to make this a true community venture.