Decontamination Centre Gourock

Entrance canopy, south building, 2007, Fox

South building, entrance canopy

The site of a World War II Decontamination Centre has been identified in Gourock, within Gourock Park on the west side of Larkfield Road, south of its junction with Broomberry Drive. The park was originally named Darroch Park, later renamed Gourock Park, but would have been the current name when the centre was built.

Shortly after we photographed the site in 2007, the building were demolished and the site cleared of all evidence of their existence towards the end of 2008.

Similar decontamination centres were prepared around the country, such as Kilmacolm, but there seems to be little record of them, so we'd be grateful for any further information, or similar site locations.

World War II

The three main buildings of the decontamination centre lie adjacent to Larkfield Road, and run downhill from south to north. These are all flat-roofed, brick built structures with cement rendering, and each has a water tank installed on the roof. A fourth building lies to the west of the building to the south, much smaller than the others and of brick with a flat concrete roof, its function is not known, but may have been a shelter or store, with a baffle wall protecting the entrance.

The most southerly building is smaller than the others, and appears to have been an administration centre or ready room for personnel.

The next two buildings are larger, and almost identical, and would have been used to process contaminated personnel.

A boundary wall separates the centre from Larkfield Road, with metal railings and gates for access, all painted green.

Postwar use

Conversation with a local resident indicates that the centre was used as a fire station at one time, and that it was also converted for reuse as a decontamination centre during the Cold War.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the lower building was used as a dining room for the nearby Eastern Primary School, which formerly resided on the site now occupied by the multi-storey flats on the corner of Chapel Street, and lacked its own catering facilities. Large garage style doors were fitted to the buildings during this period, and would not have been present on the original structure.

Council notes

Communication with the local council in 2007 confirmed the original purpose of the buildings, constructed as a Decontamination Centre at the beginning of World War II, intended to be used for decontaminating gas attack victims. Based on the Firth of Clyde, which was a busy wartime port, it would also have been used for any ship's crews that suffered a similar attack. Within the centre, victims' clothing would have been removed and incinerated, the victims would have been showered and treated to remove and neutralise any surface contamination, then provided with replacement clothing by the Red Cross or others. Despite the persistent fear of such an attack, it was never to come, and the buildings were never used for their intended purpose.

The buildings were later cleared, and the internal partition walls removed, with the two larger buildings being used as depots by the Parks Department, and the smaller one as a bothy for the workers. The buildings were also used to store equipment used by local drama groups. These have now been cleared, as funding has been approved for the demolition of the building, said to be considered an eyesore by locals, who requested their removal.

Site visit

A site visit in 2007 found that the drama groups appear to have left their equipment in the buildings.

The buildings appear to have been divided into two parts by a internal partition wall across their centres when they were built, and this is still present in all three buildings. Vandals have created small openings in the corrugated doors which face the road, and it can be seen that there is only access to one half the building. Unfortunately, the view is restricted, and it is not possible to see what the partitioning is blocking off.

The openings once provided by the baffle wall on the smaller brick building to the southwest were found to have been bricked up, the work being completed only a few years earlier

Demolition

Razed site
� Thomas Nugent

A visit in September 2008 confirmed that the locally requested demolition had been completed and the site levelled, leaving no evidence that the decontamination centre had ever existed.