Final glimpse inside Forth Park Hospital.

EXCLUSIVE: Final look at Forth Park Maternity Hospital

The once busy corridors, birthing suites, operating theatres and patient wards at Forth Park Maternity Hospital in Kirkcaldy have long since fallen silent.

Forth Park safely delivered its last baby on January 9 2012, and closed soon after in favour of the new £170 million Victoria Hospital provision.

Now the site will soon disappear from the Lang Toun skyline for good.

Demolition men and the wrecking ball will swing into action clearing away the building which has played a major role in countless Fifers’ lives, to make way for a new housing development.

In recent times the place that, in its lifespan, is said to have brought around 100,000 babies into the world, the equivalent of a quarter of the population of Fife, has been a target for petty thieves and vandals.

With demolition imminent, and renovation of the historic Mansion House and Coach House, and Mews already under way, The Courier was given exclusive access this week to take one final look at the hospital that has been the birth place of successive generations of Fifers.

With signs still in place and names on doors, it provides a poignant last glimpse into the past life of a site that has featured in many peoples lives stretching back to before the Second World War.

The maternity building we know and love opened in 1966, held as a shining example of post-war modernity to provide for a booming population.

Many a medical career for nurses, midwives and doctors have grown from this site, while lifelong friendships among colleagues have been forged on its wards.

However, there has been a hospital at the Bennochy Road site for decades before, ever since the family of Kirkcaldy manufacturer John Nairn in 1934 bequeathed the house and associated buildings to Kirkcaldy for use as a hospital.

At a cost of £12,000 the buildings were transformed into administration offices, a nursing home and a 30-bed maternity unit which opened in 1937 where they remained in use right up until 2001.

Now, Fife-based construction experts Easy Living Developments will transform the two buildings into a total of 14 luxury apartments, while the demolition of the maternity building and nurses’ accommodation will make way for 41 new homes.

Pictures: Steve Brown. Forth Park Maternity Hospital in Kirkcaldy closed in 2012 and is now in an advanced state of decay.