The Govan District Asylum at Hawkhead was built for the Govan District Lunacy Board and opened in 1895. The hospital had a capacity of 400 patients in 1895 and 520 by 1908. There was also a Govan Parochial Asylum located at the Southern General Hospital site: this functioned as a reception and assessment unit for Hawkhead. Hawkhead became a Glasgow Corporation hospital in 1930 and joined the National Health Service in 1948. It had its own Board of Management until 1968, was governed by the Board of Management for Glasgow Victoria and Leverndale Hospitals between 1968 and 1974 and from 1974 was placed in the South Eastern District of the Greater Glasgow Health Board. Leverndale Hospital became the responsibility of the Greater Glasgow Community and Mental Health NHS Trust in 1993. The name Leverndale was adopted in place of Hawkhead in 1964. In the early 1970s a 120 bed psycho-geriatric unit was built at Leverndale. During the 1980s and 1990s the original asylum buildings were taken out of use and the hospital was re-configured around newer buildings occupying only part of the original site.
From the guide to the Records of Leverndale Hospital, Hawkhead, Renfrewshire, Scotland, 1878-1968, (NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Archives)
