About

Queensberry House Trust was established in 1996 following the closure of the old Queensberry House Hospital which was situated on the Canongate at the foot of the Royal Mile here in Edinburgh.

History of the Trust

Cholera & The House of Refuge

The roots of the Queensberry House Trust reach back to the 1830s. Cholera had created a wave of poverty and homelessness across Edinburgh and beyond, and Edinburgh’s Board of Health set up a House of Refuge for the Destitute and their Children.

From 1834, the House of Refuge was based in Queensberry House, in the Canongate, which had previously been a private house, military barracks and fever hospital.

The NHS Brings a Change of Focus

Over the next few decades, the House of Refuge was extended and reorganised; in the 1860s, it had a soup kitchen, a night shelter and a general refuge; by the 1930s, it still had a night shelter, but also included a ‘hospital-home’ for men and women with ‘straitened means’ and a nursing home for ‘aged and infirm gentlewomen’.

After the founding of the NHS in 1948, it became Queensberry House Hospital, providing nursing care for the aged sick. When it later closed in 1996, the original Queensberry House became part of the Scottish Parliament complex at Holyrood. The proceeds from selling the hospital site were used to set up the Queensberry House Trust (QHT).

How the Trust Links into this History

The Trust keeps the connection with Queensberry House Hospital and the House of Refuge by focusing on the support of older people and their carers, especially in Edinburgh’s Old Town and more widely across the city and the Lothians.

Organisations and activities supported since the Trust was set up in 1996 include: