Index of English and Welsh Lunatic Asylums and Mental Hospitals
Based on a comprehensive survey in 1844, and extended to other asylums.

The Lunacy Commission Contents Page Mental Health History Timeline 1842-1844 1844 Lunacy Report

All County Asylums open in 1844 are listed and all Hospitals receiving paupers. Workhouses mentioned in the 1844 report are listed. The table lists all licensed houses receiving paupers in 1844 and shows which were commended and which severely censured in the 1844 Report.

In the 1844 Report, all asylums apart from workhouses are listed, but only some the workhouses with lunatic wards. This was because the Inquiry Commission did not systematically visit workhouses in the way that it did the other asylums.

After the 1844 Report, legislation ensured that public asylums were provided for all areas of the country. These new public asylums are shown in white on green.

National Health Service Psychiatric Hospitals were classified as "Mental Illness" or "Mental Handicap". I am adding listings of the Mental Handicap ones (1970s) on yellow.

Some hospitals will appear on the green and the yellow, usually because they started as chronic asylums in the late nineteenth century.

There are some asylums in grey that do not fit in to any of the above categories, but are conveniently included on this page. These include hospitals not receiving paupers in 1844.

The table is arranged geographically:

London,
South East England,
South West England,
Wales, Welsh Border and West Midlands away from Birmingham,
Birmingham and West Midlands
East Midlands and Lincolnshire,
Cheshire and Lancashire,
Yorkshire,
Northumberland and Durham.

Some prices for weekly costs of maintaining paupers 4d: a useful pauper farmed in Wales, 1/6 tp 2/6: average for pauper lunatics or idiots farmed in Wales, 2/9: Ellen Davies, a harmless idiot, farmed with Edward Grey, 4/1d, not including clothes: Cheshire paupers at Cheshire County Asylum 5/- a "dangerous" and "dirty" lunatic farmed in Wales, after Haydock's competition 5/6d: Cornwall paupers at Cornwall County Asylum 6/- Lancashire paupers at Lancaster County Asylum 6/- to 7/- excluding clothes: West Auckland 7/-: Haydcock Lodge in 1845 7/- a "dangerous" and "dirty" lunatic farmed in Wales, before Haydock's competition 7/6: Haydcock Lodge in 1844 7/- to 8/- including clothes. Wreckenton 7/6 to 8/- including clothes. Laverstock House 8/- (including clothes): Belle Vue, Devizes, Fiddington House, Fisherton House, Dunston Lodge, Gateshead Fell, Bensham, 8/- excluding clothes: Hull Refuge 8/6: Bottom price for private patients at Haydock Lodge 8/- to 9/- Kingsdown House 9/- including clothes: Lainston House, Gloucestershire County Asylum, Droitwich Lunatic Asylum, Hoxton House (London), 9/- excluding clothes: Green Hill House 9/- to 9/6: Hilsea Asylum 9/8d farthing: Bethnal Green (London), 10/- : paupers from outside Cheshire at Cheshire County Asylum 10/- including clothes: Duddeston Hall, Peckham House (London), 10/6: paupers from outside Cornwall at Cornwall County Asylum Welsh patients at Lancaster County Asylum 10/6d excluding clothes - but an "admission charge" of £1..1/-. Plympton House 10/- to 12/- excluding clothes: Hereford Lunatic Asylum 12/- including clothes: Liverpool Lunatic Asylum

London

Hanwell (1st Middlesex) County Asylum
[A Sarah Rutherford case study]
Built 1829 to 1830. Opened 16.5.1831
Architect: William Alderson. Peter Cracknell classifies it as Corridor form. Jacobi classifies it as a distinct form.
Landscape: Designer D. Ramsay
Built in what was then country. Closest market town was Brentford. Technically in Norwood Parish, but known as the Hanwell Asylum from the beginning as it was much closer to the centre of Hanwell than to Southall or Norwood. See GENUKI (1868 National Gazeteer)
For the early history of Hanwell see the biography of James Clitherow
Tessa Speight's history
Superintendent January 1831 to early 1838: William Ellis. Matron, Mrs Ellis
Visiting physician from 1832: Alexander Morison
1834: The Hanwell Lunatic Asylum by Harriet Martineau
From about 1835 to about 1840, George Peacock Button was house surgeon. He witnessed William Ellis's will in April 1839. He became superintendent of the Dorset County Asylum.
Extra wings added 1837/1838
Architect: William Moseley.
Superintendent April 1838 to 1839 Gideon John Millingen
Superintendent 1839 to 1844: John Conolly, who abolished mechanical restraint.
"old mode of treatment" - "new methods"
October 1839 51st Report Visiting Justices
January 1840 52nd Report Visiting Justices
April 1840 53rd Report Visiting Justices
July 1840 54th Report Visiting Justices
January 1841 56th Report Visiting Justices
April 1841 57th Report Visiting Justices
July 1841 58th Report Visiting Justices: they had "been imperatively called upon to annul the appointment of the Reverend Francis Tebutt as chaplain to the asylum. His duties will cease on the 11th of the month, and he will be succeeded by the Reverend Thomas Burt"
October 1841 The Fifty-ninth Report of the Visiting Justices of the Lunatic Asylum of Hunwell. The Resident Physician's Report, and the Report of the Chaplain, . This formed the basis of an extensive review in the a New York newspaper on 2.4.1842
1844 to 1852 John Conolly visiting physician Hanwell). Conolly became the proprietor of Lawn House and Hayes Park
1.1.1844: 975 patients. All pauper. 1844? 14.6% of patients epileptic
Superintendent: April to August 1844: John Godwin (not medical)
Visiting Physician: J. Conolly M.D.; House Surgeons: J. Beyley, M.D.; Davies M.D.
15.1.1848 Full page illustration and short article "Twelfth Night at the Hanwell Asylum" in the The Illustrated London News
From about 1850 to about 1872, W.C. Begley was resident medical officer (Annual Reports). William Chapman Begley had witnessed William Ellis's will in April 1839.
A third floor added in 1859.
13.11.1861 Theodore Edward Edwards, a patient, killed himself. An autopsy [inquest?] was carried out by Thomas Wakley. Hospital records show that Theodore was buried within the hospital grounds. A descendent would like to know where were this is. We have located the burial ground on an 1868 map. In the late twentieth century, a Regional Secure Unit was built on these grounds.
July 1873 R R Alexander, MB, CM. appointed Assistant Medical Officer in the place of J. Hawkes who went to Westbrooke House Asylum in Hampshire.
Biography of a patient (Alfred Woodhurst) admitted 1877
1880 Large chapel (surviving) built to replace a smaller one. The asylum now had nearly 2,000 patients.
1881 Census: Middlesex Lunatic Asylum, Norwood, Middlesex. There are two medical superintendents: Joseph Pake Richards (married, aged 40, surgeon) and Henry Rayner (unmarried, aged 39, physician). Isabella Elizabeth Hicks is Matron.
Became a London County Asylum in 1889.
About 1894?: Robert Reid Alexander M.D. resident medical superintendent; Rev. Robert Andrews MA. chaplain; James William Palmer, clerk & Alfred Henry Larcome, steward.
Hanwell Mental Hospital from 1929 to 1937.
St Bernard's Hospital from 1938 to 1980. Uxbridge Road, Southall, UB1 3EU.
By 1960 known as St Bernard's, Southall. It had 2500 staffed beds
Sometime before 1962, Andrew O'Brien visited his uncle in St Bernard's Hospital. It was "like a small town in itself". There was a church, a laundry, and a point on the Grand Union Canal where barges brought the coal for the Hospital. He can remember the tall Victorian wards and that there seemed to be many patients in each ward, and white coated male orderlies who seemed to spend some of their time lighting patients cigarettes. He felt very sad and could not face going again after his second visit.
In 1971 it had 2,039 beds, 189 in locked wards.
Two general hospitals: King Edward Memorial Hospital and Claypond's (started as an isolation hospital) form Ealing Hospital between 1978 and 1980.
Ealing Hospital built adjacent to St Bernard's. A District General Hospital "in the form of a multistorey concrete slab with lower blocks around it" (Scher, P. 1999)
[ Ealing Hospital weblink]
By 1985, staffed beds reduced to 950
"Since then St Bernard's, a Grade II listed building, has become a 'wing'" [of Ealing Hospital], "albeit a large one, comprising the central and eastern parts of the original, the western part having been sold for redevelopment." (Scher, P. 1999)
West London Mental Health Trust weblink

The address of West London Healthcare NHS Trust is St. Bernard's Wing, Uxbridge Road Southall, Middlesex UBI 3EU. 020 8574 2444. (Community services, Mental health services)

Stephen James, Head of Partnerships and Diversity, Ealing Primary Care Trust writes (26.8.2005) "There is a large range of [psychiatric] services (including inpatient and forensic) provided by West London Mental Health Trust (WLMHT) at the site. There is also a museum, which I understand the Trust cannot open regularly because of lack of funds".

Three Bridges Regional Secure Unit St Bernard's Hospital, Uxbridge Road, Southall, Middlesex, UB1 3EU established 1980s?

" The burial grounds were used for building the Regional Secure Unit (RSU). Any human remains that were uncovered were removed and later re- interned in the "Garden of Remembrance". This is the small upright rectangle one can see in the Google aerial photo - If you compare it to your old map you can make the match easily. The garden of remembrance is the above the left hand canal lock and directly above the lock's left-hand gate. To the immediate right is a parking lot with white hospital vans and the RSU is the complex further the right with the semicircular crescent." (Paul Champion, email 12.8.2006)

mid 1990s? Corsellis Brain Collection moved to St Bernards?
"Inner Space" by Peter Scher in Hospital Development 1.3.1999 has history and present development
2003 use: "Part luxury housing and part psychiatric hospital"
(external link history of Hanwell district) (external link Boston House)

Museum and Chapel of St Bernard's Hospital, Uxbridge Road, Southall. Georgian. Formerly the Middlesex County Lunatic Asylum. "Not suitable for under-16s". I can sadly confirm that the Hanwell hospital museum has permanently closed and the collection dispersed. Some of it went to the Gunnersbury Park Museum http://www.hounslow.info/gunnersburyparkmuseum (prior permission is required to view as it is not on display) and some to the Welcome Trust (I think this would have been the apparatus and other clinical hardware) and the London Metropolitan Archives took the records and papers. (Paul Champion, email 12.8.2006)

Surrey County Asylum
Springfield, near Wandsworth
Nick Hervey says that the asylum was "in response to the growing expense of farming out the county's chronic insane to private licensed houses in the metropolis" and that " Sir Alexander Morison who was appointed as Visiting Physician before building commenced, carried out a survey of these patients".
"The site at Springfield Park, Wandsworth was bought from Henry Perkins, a wealthy brewer and partner in the firm of Barclay and Perkins, who had himself obtained the freehold from the 2nd Earl of Spencer"
1838 Building started
Architect: usually stated to be E Lapidge, but Nick says he was only one of the designers and that it "was done to the design of William Moseley, who was the County Surveyor for Middlesex and had previously been working on extensions at Hanwell". - Corridor form
The present "Main Building", built around a lawn and fountain area (See external link), appears to be the centre of the original corridor. Some of the corridors and main rooms (not all) have a pronounced slope, some running down towards the south-west of the building. One (at least) main corridor slopes towards the southeast. Does anyone know why this is?
opened 14.6. 1841 Cost: Total £85,366..19..1d. Comprised of Land: (97 acres) £8,985..9..5 - Buildings: £67,467..1..10 - Furnishings etc and preliminary expenses: £7,514..19.3 (1844 Report p.222)
Nick Hervey says that 299 patients were brought in on the day of opening, increasing to 385 in the first year. They included 172 from Peckham House, 51 from Hoxton and 54 from Bethnal Green. However, patients may have moved in from these asylums earlier as their movement was noted in a report for the year 1.6.1840 to 31.5.1841.
1.1.1844: 382 patients. All pauper.
Superintendent: S. Hill, Surgeon
1844 At the time of the 1844 Report, Surrey was the most modern county asylum. Its construction was generally approved of. "the house and galleries generally are warmed by the circulation of steam, and the introduction of hot air through apertures in the floor. The temperature is regulated by stop-cocks, and kept between 56 degrees and 58 degrees. There are open fires, with proper guards, in the several day rooms on the female side; and it is proposed to adopt them also in the male division". (1844 Report p.20)
1848-1858 Hugh Welch Diamond (1809-1886), photographic pioneer (External links: RSM, Getty, Leggat, Pearl Science and Society Picture Library), was Resident Superintendent of the Female Department. See Lutwidge 1853 and Millar 1853. He appears to have left to set up his own, high class, lunatic asylum in Twickenham
Until about 1857, Alexander Morison, Charles Snape and Hugh W. Diamond were the medical officers connected with Surrey Asylum
About 1860 John Meyer appointed Resident Physician. William Orange was Assistant Medical Officer
1863 John Meyer and William Orange move to Broadmoor. James Strange Biggs became Resident Physician
1881 Census: James Strange Biggs, physician, aged 53, was asylum head
1889 to 1912 Hugh Gardiner Hill medical superintendent. His son, Harold, a family historian, was very proud of the way his father carried on Robert Gardiner Hill's non-restraint work at Springfield. The graves of Hugh and his wife Rosie are in the Magdalen Road Cemetery not far from Springfield
Transferred to Middlesex County Council after the 1888 Local Government Act, when it was known first as Wandsworth Asylum.
From about 1918 known as Springfield Asylum.
A detached annexe for 260 "low-grade mental defectives, 180 children and 80 adults" was built under the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act.
1919 Post Office Directory: Middlesex County. Beechcroft Road, Upper Tooting, SW17 and Garrat Green, Burntwood Lane, Tooting SW17. Reginald Worth MB medical superintendent; Gayton Warwick Smith, MD assistant medical officer; Rev William Parkinson Iddeson, MA, chaplain; Thomas W. Beale, clerk to the asylum.
1926 Nurses were instructed to show kindness and forbearance with "example being better than precept" (Regualations and Orders of Springfield Mental Hospital, London). (external link)
In 1939 "Springfield (Mental) Hospital" had 2,000 patients, 83 acres of farm land and 14 acres of garden. There was close cooperation between Springfield and Westminster Hospital.
Spring 1978 Springfield Words
Now Springfield Hospital (external link), 61 Glenburnie Road, London, SW17 7DJ.
Autumn 2002: Reported still open, or closed and empty (street map - multimap. Simon Cornwall: Was to close but parts have remained opened. 30.1.2006: from David Gardiner-Hill "It is definitely open and a Mental Health Trust associated with Georges Hospital Trust. The Gardiner Hill Unit has unfortunately changed its name though signs to it still litter Tooting/Wandsworth!! I have visited on open day, and seen the old history exhibition in the mortuary. The superintendent's house Hugh Gardiner Hill lived in is now offices overlooking the golf course in the grounds, but I have recognisable photos of the drive and gardens of this house when Hugh's children were babies and a lovely one of his wife in a 1906 car, also a record of speeding ticket from a newspaper. Speeding was newsworthy".

London Licensed Houses receiving paupers:

Warburton's, Bethnal Green
1.1.1844 562 patients. 336 pauper and 226 private.
COMMENDED IN 1844

Hoxton House
1.1.1844 396 patients. 315 pauper and 81 private.
SEVERELY CENSURED IN 1844 REPORT

Peckham House
1.1.1844 251 patients. 203 pauper and 48 private.
SEVERELY CENSURED IN 1844 REPORT

London Workhouse Lunatic Wards

St Marylebone See Peter Higginbotham's site

First workhouse established in 1730, after the Workhouse Test Act. A local Act of Parliament, passed in 1775, enabled the Vestry to build a new workhouse. Under this, the administration of poor relief in the parish was conducted by Directors and Guardians of the Poor who included thirty parishioners appointed by the Vestry. The old building was used as an infirmary.

1792 new infirmary block for 300.

War led an widespread increase in pauperism and St Marylebone was over-full with 1,168 inmates in 1797. The Guardians resorted to out-relief without demanding entry into the workhouse.

1815: Lord Robert Seymour, a Director of Poor for the Parish of Saint Marylebone was "in the practice of visiting the insane poor of that parish at Mr Warburton's, Bethnal Green"

1844 Report page 87: "In the Lunatic wards of the Marylebone Workhouse there were admitted in the years 1842 and 1843, 190 paupers considered as insane. Some few of these, however, were stated to be only under temporary excitement. The overseers of this parish could obtain admission into the Hanwell Asylum for only twenty-seven of these 190 cases..."

Workhouse Masters:
1842-1850 James Jones
1850-1851 W Barlow
1851-1856 George Whelan
1856 Richard Ryan (the "woman flogger" of a London ballad)
1857 James Barnet

1847 approval for Marylebone workhouse to become a temporary asylum for lunatics. (Hervey, N.B. 1987)
On lists of licensed houses as "St-Mary-le-Bone. Workhouse":
30.6.1846: Licensed to Dr Boyd with 35 patients
30.6.1847: Licensed to Dr Boyd and T. Jones, surgeon, with 68 patients
1.1.1849: 79 patients, 30 male, 49 female. All pauper.

London Workhouse Union

Westminster Union See Peter Higginbotham's site

Archives Metropolitan Archives contain Registers of patients maintained by the Union in imbecile asylums 1885-1895 (reference WEBG/WM/52/1) and 1896 - 1902 (reference WEBG/WM/52/2).

1885-1895 relates to Hanwell*; Banstead*; Colney Hatch*; Cane Hill*; Hoxton House*; Bethnal House*; Grove Hall, Bow*; Peckham House*; Salisbury, Fisherton House*; Kent County, Barming Heath*; Camberwell House*; Kent County, Chartham*; Moulsford nr. Wallingford; Bristol Borough; and Claybury*

1896-1902 relates to the ones marked with an asterisk (*) above, plus Exeter Borough, Heavitree; Surrey County, Brookwood ; Nottingham Borough, Mapperley Hill ; Dorset County; Glamorgan County; Dorchester; Northampton County, Berry Wood ; Wadsley nr. Sheffield; Warwick County, Hatton; Isle of Wight, Newport; Bristol City, Fishponds; Lancashire, Haydock Lodge; Bexley; Stone nr. Dartford; Manor at Horton; Lancashire County, Prestwich; Winson Green; Hertfordshire County, Hill End; Leicester Borough; Middlesex County, Wandsworth and West Sussex, Chichester

In the early nineteenth century, the City of London and its parishes had a diversity of institutional resources to call on to accommodate pauper lunatics. It controlled Bethlem Hospital. St Lukes was just outside its "square mile", as were the large private pauper asylums at Hoxton and Bethnal Green. Many of the parishes had their own workhouses and, in Hoxton and elsewhere, there were also several private workhouses (pauper farm houses).

Bethlem Hospital, (1844) St George's Fields, South London.

1.1.1844: 355 patients of whom 90 were criminals.

Bethlem was outside the Commission's investigative authority. For statistical purposes:

"In the absence of any specific information ... we have entered the Criminal Lunatics ... seventy Males and twenty Females, as Paupers. We have also assumed that the remainder of the Patients ... generally, are of Private class, although we have reason to believe that some of them are maintained, wholly or in part, at the charge of Unions or Parishes" (1844 Report p.186)"

1377: old Bedlam (St Mary of Bethlem)
1403: visited
1536 on: monasteries dissolved - City gets Bethlem
1559: Bethlem on oldest map of London (sketch map)
1615 Oldest surviving written lyrics of the ballad Mad Tom of Bedlam
1618 Helkiah Crooke (1576-1648), physician to James 1st, non- resident "keeper"
1633 An enquiry into the affairs of Bethlem Hospital led to Helkiah Crooke's dismissal
From 1634 a resident steward was responsible for the practical management. Also from the 1630s there was a (non-resident) physician.
1676: Moorfields Bedlam and pay to view insanity (sketch map)
[A Sarah Rutherford case study]
Architect: Robert Hooke
The Bedlam page on Molly Brown's tour of Restoration London
1684 Edward Tyson (1650-1708) physician
1698-1770 Ned Ward's The London Spy
1700 David Irish in Guildford advertised "good fires, meat, and drink, with good attendance, and all necessaries far beyond what is allowed at Bedlam"
1701 Henry Mackenzie The Man of Feeling
1704 Swift's Tale of a Tub
1708 Death of Dr Edward Tyson
2.10.1728 James Monro appointed physician
1730s: wings for incurables added. These necessitated alteration to the airing courts.
1737 A General Committee of about 46 Governors appointed to administer Bridewell and Bethlem on behalf of the (large) Court of Governors
24.7.1751 John Monro appointed physician with his father
4.11.1752: death of James Monro. John sole physician.
From the 1750s a resident apothecary was appointed.
21.4.1764 Following holiday riots at Christmas, Easter and Whitsun, it was ordered that constables and assistants be placed in the galleries during the forthcoming holiday. (Hunter and Macalpine 1963 p.427)
John Monro's 1766 Case Book
1770 Visiting restricted to people with tickets of admission from a Governor. By 1779, visiting was restricted to Mondays and Wednesdays (by 1794, "between the hours of ten and twelve o,clock in the forenoon". On 22.5.1779 it was ordered that the number of visitors on one ticket be limited to the person who it was made out to and three others, to curb the "great number of persons admitted". (Hunter and Macalpine 1963 p.428 + 429)
1772 John Gozna Apothecary to Bedlam.
1787: Thomas Monro appointed assistant to his father
27.12.1791: death of John, Thomas Monro succeeds
1795: John Haslam (born London 1764, died July 1844) succeeded John Gozna as Apothecary to Bedlam.
October 1796: Mary Lamb fearful of being confined in Bethlem
Bethlem on 1799 map of London (sketch map)
1800: 266 patients

1804 to 1806 Urbane Metcalf a patient for the first time. His case note on his second stay (1817-1818) say "he is frequently engaged in the occupation of a tailor.. but I am informed that he gets his living out of doors as a hawker and pedlar." In 1817 he considered himself heir to the throne of Denmark, and was suffering as much from depression as delusions. He was discharged cured. "I spent twenty-two months in that dreary abode, Old Bethlem Hospital; not more I believe than six weeks during that time I was incapable, through indisposition, of judging the occurrences that daily took place. From the supineness of the then physician, the cruelty of the apothecary, the weakness of the steward, and the uncontrolled audacity of the keepers [scenes took place that should have been discovered if only six humane people a year had visited] but what was the fact? it stood in the midst of the most populous city in Europe... was almost daily visited by some of the most exalted characters in the country, as well as by feigners. Part of the time, I occupied the next room to... Norris... the iron bar to which he was fastened stood at the foot of my bed."

1806: Transport Board responsible for naval maniacs. See description of relations with Hoxton House etc - In 1815, John Haslam was asked whether "nine or ten years ago" there were empty cells. He replied "I think, from the war, we had them pouring in from the Transport Board and the War Office" (p.103)
1814: 119 patients. Decline in numbers may have been due to deteriorating conditions of the building making some parts uninhabitable. Many pauper lunatics were moved to Warburton's in Bethnal Green
25.4.1814: Edward Wakefield's first visit
2.5.1814 Edward Wakefield's party visit the women's galleries where they find a side room with ten chained patients clothed only in blanket gowns. In a cell on the lower gallery they found William Norris, 55 years old, who said he had been confined about fourteen years.
7.6.1814: drawing made of William Norris, in restraint
1815: St George's Field Bedlam and criminal lunatics.
Piddock, S. 2002: Linear design: wards over three full storeys and an attic floor. Men and women accommodated in mirror wings on either side of a central administrative section. Accommodation primarily in single cells with a small spur ward on either side providing three cells for the noisy. Arlidge, J.T. 1859 "argued that most, if not all, lunatic asylums were based on the design of Bethlem Hospital, itself based on the monasteries which had provided the early asylums for the insane".
July 1816: John Haslam and Thomas Monro not re-appointed, but Thomas succeeded by his son, Edward Thomas Monro and another (jointly appointed) physician, Sir George Leman Tuthill (born 1772, died 1835). Reforms in the management introduced about this time included keeping case notes on patients. The British Library Catalogue lists To the Governors of the Royal Hospitals of Bridewell and Bethlem, etc. [Asking for support in his candidature for the post of physician to the Hospitals] by Sir George Leman Tuthill, London, 1816.

1.6.1817 to 12.11.1818 Urbane Metcalf a patient for the second time. On his release he published a pamphlet The Interior of Bethlem Hospital which he sold around London (3d a copy?). "I... became again a patient in the New Bethlem Hospital, and am happy to be able to state that I found many alterations in the provisions, and in other things that greatly added to the comfort of patients, and to the honour of those governors through whom those alterations were effected. I found there were four galleries, and that the patients in one gallery had seldom access to those in another, except when in the green yard, and the establishment to be considerably larger, but not so many patients. I became Dr Tothill's patient, and was put in the upper gallery, Thomas Rodbird keeper. I wish to observe that I have read the printed rules of the establishment, and their principle is good, the comforts of the patients are secured in every respect, but these regulations are departed from and the keepers do just as they please." Urbane then lists the staff [this is of the male side] as Physicians: Drs Tothill and E.T. Munro; Apothecary: Mr Wallett; Steward: Mr Humbly; Porter: Simmons; Keepers: Allen and Goose (first gallery or basement); Dowie (second gallery); Blackburn (third gallery); Rodbird (fourth gallery); Cutter: Vickery. "It is to be observed that the basement is appropriated for those patients who are not cleanly in their persons, and who, on that account have no beds, but lay on straw with blankets and a rug; but I am sorry to say, it is too often made a place of punishments, to gratify the unbounded cruelties of the keepers. The present physicians, I think too supine: providence has placed them in situations wherein they have it in their power greatly to add to, or diminish from the comfort of the unfortunate; I have known patients make just complains to them, which have been received with the utmost indifference, and not at all attended to." Urbane arranges his complaint under sub-headings of the keepers and officers names, attempting to show how the institution is being run for their benefit, at the expense of the patients

March 1819: E. Wright appointed Apothecary Superintendent
October 1830: Dr E. Wright, Apothecary Superintendent, dismissed, having forfeited the confidence of the Governors. [Note that he calls it "the Royal Hospital of Bethlem"]
Consultant physician (with E.T. Monro) from 1835 to 1853: Alexander Morison
1837 extensions to the building

1841 Census: (ages of adults are given to nearest five years) Nathanial Nicholls, Steward, 50. Hannah Nicholls, 45. John Thomas, Apothecary, 45. Mary Thomas, 35. Henrietta Hearn, Matron, 40. John Hearn, 20. William Brown, Porter, 50. Thomas Medley?, Gate Keeper, 40. Elizabeth Medley, 30. Mary David, Kitchen Maid, 30. Charles French, Cutter of Provisions, 30. Three Laundry Maids. Twelve male Keepers. Twelve female Keepers. William Howard, Gardener, 35. Mary Pandigrath, Housemaid, aged 15. Harriet Eliza Hunter, aged 15 (an officer's relative). Five female servants to officers and two male. 167 male patients. 166 female patients, 333 total patients.

Friday 7.4.1843 Mr Hume (MP) objected to £4,122 being "granted for defraying the expense of maintaining criminal lunatics in Bethlem Hospital". He visited them "many times at intervals, and there were several...who appeared to him to be perfectly sane. Mr Hatfield, among others. Hume wanted a way that "offenders... who had their intellects restored...should no longer enjoy comparative impunity".
The Lancet 15.2.1845: Editorial comparing Bethlem unfavourably with Bicêtre and Salpétrière in Paris which are "open to all pupils and medical men, who have a right to follow the physicians in their daily visits to the wards". "The directors of Bethlem have, it is true, lately relaxed the extreme severity of their regulations, and distributed amongst the schools a few tickets of admission, for which we give them due credit, but this relaxation of former rules is by no means sufficient. Every facility should be afforded to students to acquire a familiar knowledge of insanity, and our hospitals ought to be freely open..."
1846: Dome, designed by Sidney Smirke, added
1852:: Critical Report
William Charles Hood became Resident Medical Superintendent
1862 W.C. Hood became a Chancery Visitor. Succeeded as Resident Medical Superintendent by William Rhys Williams
1878 William Rhys Williams became a Lunacy Commissioner. Succeeded as Resident Medical Superintendent by George Henry Savage.
1863: criminal lunatics sent to Broadmoor

1881 Census: "Bethlem Royal Hospital", St Georges Cross, Southwark - St George Martyr, Surrey. Resident Officer (Physician) George Henry Savage, widower, aged 38, born Brighton. His housekeeper and housemaid. A friend, Wilhelm Von Speyr (physician aged 28), from Basle in Switzerland was visiting. William Edward Ramsden Wood: Medical Officer (Physician), aged 31. His wife, children and servants. The Gate Porter and his wife. Under Storekeeper. Cutter of Provisions. Assistant Hall Porter. Edmund Smeeth, married, aged 63: Head Attendant Male Side and 15 male and 21 female "Attendants on Insane". A laundress. A housemaid. Another female domestic servant. About 255 patients, only about 94 of whom were men. There were also two "other" and one "visitor". The Gardener, Richard Whibley, and his large family, lived at St Edwards Schools in St Georges Road. Two of his daughters were training to be teachers.

1882 Charity commissioners gave permission for paying patients to be admitted. 1896 extensions to the building
1930: Kent Bethlem Hospital

Bethlem Royal Hospital Archives and Museum
Monks Orchard Road
Beckenham
Kent BR3 3BX

Royal Bethlem Hospital Museum   other museums

external link to map with arrow pointing to present site Notice the sites of several other asylums in south London.

For Bethlem's history: see the Timeline for 1377, 1676, 1815, 1852, 1863, 1930, on this site Follow external links for The word "Bedlam": lovatts.com - xref entry Brief History of Bethlem, by Patricia Allderidge Catholic Encyclopedia West Beckenham Association history Museum of London web exhibit at http://www.museum-london.org.uk/MOLsite/exhibits/bedlam/bedlam.htm Mad Tom of Bedlam lyrics and midi from the Living History web. Using a Civil War tune. Tom O'Bedlam's Song. Fuller version Bedlam on stage from the Shakespeare's times website Robert Hooke's architecture (Moorfield's Bedlam) The Bedlam page on Molly Brown's tour of Restoration London History on the John Snow site Texts of visits to Bedlam on Jack Lynch's site Web exhibition of Hogarths' prints - inluding the Rake's Progress Hogarth prints on the ArtArchive site Donald Cousin's visits remains and plaques For today's Royal Bethlem: BBC Mental Health "Inside a hospital" South London and Maudsley NHS Trust Catalogue of Records

In the 1860s Bethlem became a hospital for the "superior class". Criminals were sent to Broadmoor and paupers to: City of London Lunatic Asylum (map link) (See also the London County Council asylum at Bexley) Built by the Corporation of London at Stone near Dartford, Kent during 1862 to 1866. Designed by James Bunstone Bunning, the City's Clerk of the Works (later City Architect and Surveyor). Opened 16.4.1866. (Later additions made) 1881 census: Medical Superintendent: Octavious Jepson (Widower); Assistant Medical Officer: Frank William Marlow From 1892, private patients were admitted. From 1924 known as the City of London Mental Hospital. From 1924 able to receive voluntary boarders The Committee of Visitors had originally been composed of the Aldermen and Recorder as Justices, but under the Local Government Act 1888 the Justices powers and duties passed to the City's Court of Common Council which appointed 12 of its members to be the Visiting Committee. 2 Women were added to the committee from January 1931 (Under the Mental Treatment Act 1930). In 1948 the hospital was transferred to the Minister of Health under the National Health Service Act 1946. Became Stone House Hospital, Cotton Lane, Stone, Dartford, Kent, DA2 6AU. The hospital is due to close and will be converted into luxury apartments. The City of London Record Office has most of the archives (to 1948/1949), but some appear to be in the London Metropolitan Archive St Clement's The City of London Union Workhouse opened in 1849. At some stage it ceased being a general workhouse and became Bow Infirmary. Peter Higginbotham's site says: "In 1909, it was vacated by the City of London Union who had decided to concentrate their work at Homerton in the former East London Union workhouse which had just been substantially enlarged. After a period of standing empty, the building was re-opened on 1st March 1912 as Bow Institution. It was later renamed the City of London Institution, then in May 1936 it was renamed St. Clement's Hospital which it is still known as today." I do not know at what stage it became a psychiatric hospital. It passed from the City of London Poor Law Union to London County Council in 1930 and, about the same time (from about 1929), had, or was, a Mental Observation Unit. It became part of the National Health Service in 1948. St Clement's Hospital (from 1936) was administratively absorbed by The London Hospital in 1968 and became The London Hospital (St Clement's), 2A Bow Road, London, E3 4LL.

St Luke's Hospital probably not receiving paupers in 1844 17.6.1750 Meeting in the King's Arms in Exchange Alley that decided to found a hospital: Founders Thomas Crowe, physician; Richard Speed, druggist of Old Fish Street; William Prowing, apothecary of Tower Street; James Sperling and Thomas Light, merchants of Mincing Lane; and Francis Magnus (250 year history booklet) Opened 1751 Upper Moorfields, opposite Bethlem. (see sketch map). Took its name from the new parish of St Luke's "The first patients were admitted in July 1751. In February 1753 the number was increased to 57. From 1754 some incurable patients were readmitted and for some time the numbers remained steady: 50 curable and 20 incurable patients. The staff consisted of the keeper and his wife plus two male and two female attendants." (250 year history booklet) William Battie (1703-1776) was physician to 1764 1781 Samuel Foart Simmons (born 17.3.1750, died 23.4.1813) became physician. "From this time... he devoted himself almost exclusively to the treatment of insanity... he attained a high reputation and from it accumulated an ample fortune." 1782 Thomas Dunston moved from being "senior basketman" at Bethlem 1786 moved to Old Street. (New building designed by George Dance and erected 1782 to 1784?) Mr and Mrs Thomas Dunston became Master and Matron from 1786, previously (from 1782) they had been head man keeper and head woman keeper. Their son, John Dunston, apothecary, married the daughter of Thomas Warburton 1810 Benjamin Rush refered to "Dr Dunston" "physician of St Luke's Hospital... eminent for his knowledge of diseases of the mind" February 1811 Samuel Foart Simmons resigned as physician. Appointed consultant physician. His son did not wish to succeed him, but did wish his university friend, Alexander Robert Sutherland, to succeed. One of the unsuccessful candidates was George Leman Tuthill Alexander Robert Sutherland elected physician: "The House also for private patients at Islington was consigned to Dr S. on certain valuable considerations" 1812 Samuel Tuke visited St Lukes and compared ideas with Thomas Dunston. In a manuscript memorandum, he wrote: "There are three hundred patients, sexes about equal; number of women formerly much greater than men; incurables about half the number. The superintendent has never seen much advantage from the use of medicine, and relies chiefly on management. Thinks chains a preferable mode of restraint to straps or the waistcoat in some violent cases. Says they have some patients who do not generally wear clothes. Thinks confinement or restraint may be imposed as a punishment with some advantage, and, on the whole, thinks fear the most effectual principle by which to reduce the insane to orderly conduct. Instance: I observed a young woman chained by the arm to the wall in a small room with a large fire and several other patients, for having run downstairs to the committee-room door. The building has entirely the appearance of a place of confinement, enclosed by high walls, and there are strong iron grates to the windows. Many of the windows are not glazed, but have iron shutters which are closed at night. On the whole, I think St Luke's stands in need of a radical reform." (Quoted Tuke, D.H. 1882 pages 89-90) 1813 Mrs Foulkes prosecuted for keeping lunatics without a licence in a house owned by Thomas Dunston. 1816 Evidence of John William Rogers (a surgeon dismissed by Warburton) that Thomas Dunston received £500 a year from Warburton for recommending patients. Mr and Mrs Dunston had a joint salary from St Luke's of £150 and St Luke's, at one time, had 700 people on its waiting list. Dunston was also said to board lunatics in single houses. (Morris, A.D. 1958, apparently from 1816 Select Committee Reports) 1816 Death of Mrs Dunston, the Matron. Thomas Dunston's title became "Steward" 31.3.1829 After setting fire to York Minster, Jonathan Martin was found not guilty on the ground of insanity. He was confined in St Luke's, where he died 3.6.1838 1829: John Warburton MD elected physician 1830 Death of Thomas Dunston, the Steward who had been in day to day charge of St Luke's since 1782 From 1830 some attempt was made to separate patients according to categories. From 1833 recognised as important to provide some form of occupational therapy for patients "From 1833 it was recognised that it was important to provide some form of occupational therapy for patients. This was another idea supported by Dr Sutherland and also by John Warburton. Whilst this was a step forward they nevertheless maintained some older forms of treatment such as the use of occasional forcible restraint. This was said to be necessary because the number of staff employed to care for the patients was relatively small, in fact a ratio of 7 to 1." (250 year history booklet) 31.8.1833 Clementina and William John Stinton had a baby girl who they christened Clementina Stinton at Saint Luke Old Street on 25.9.1833 1841 Census: Henry Lambert, aged 24, Resident Apothecary. William Jno Swinton, aged 37, Steward. Clementina Stinton, aged 39, Matron. Eight year old daughter (same name as Mrs Stinton] and a second Matron (Harriet Camerow?) aged about 60. Apart from Henry Lambert, the above were all born in Middlesex. Clementina Stinton, born Middlesex about 1834, was living in Lewes in 1881. The 1841 Census return was certified on 7.6.1841 by "Wm Jm Stinton, Steward of St Lukes Hospital for Lunatics". 1841 Alexander Robert Sutherland retired as physician and was succeeded by his son AlexanderJohn Sutherland 1842: A chaplain was hired and a chapel was being built 1844: Steward: Mr Stinton 1.1.1844: 93 curable patients, 84 incurable Henry Monro was a physician from 1855 to 1882. 1860 AlexanderJohn Sutherland retired as a physician to St Luke's From 1871 the Governors began to examine the possibility of acquiring a site for a second building in the country which could be used for convalescent patients. 1881 Census: George Mickley (Physician, unmarried, aged 37) [May previously have worked at Wyke House], Resident Medical Superintendent; Francis William Edward Hinners (unmarried, aged 23) and Edgar Vivian Ayre Phipps (unmarried, aged 24) Resident Clinical Assistant Surgeons. Steward: Thomas Collier Walker, aged 72, born Scotland. Matron: Charlotte Eliza Walker, aged 65, born Douglas, Isle of Man (presumably husband and wife), living with unmarried and unoccupied son and daughter of Steward, both born in Scotland: George Lyell Walker, aged 47 and Margaret Jane Walker, aged 40. 1882 The practice of having a husband a wife as Steward and Matron of the hospital ended. (250 year history booklet) In 1893 Nether Hall, near Ramsgate, was taken over for the benefit of [convalescing] female patients. Initially the property was rented but in 1901 it was purchased by the Hospital. 12.6.1904 to 5.11.1905 painted postcards from Edward O. Cole (patient). The research for most of the information from 1871 to the present was carried out by Jean Cullen, present owner of these postcards. 1910 the Hospital bought the Welders Estate near Jordans in Buckinghamshire, with the intention of building a substantial convalescent home. The project was never brought to completion, but an Encyclopedia reference in 1922 refers to new buildings being constructed at Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. "When St Luke's Hospital closed at the end of 1916, all the remaining patients were either discharged to their homes or transferred to other institutions. In 1922 it was suggested that a psychiatric unit should be instituted by St Luke's in cooperation with a General hospital. This led to the funding by the St Luke's charity of both an out-patient clinic and a psychiatric in-patient ward at the Middlesex Hospital. This continued until the new St Luke's-Woodisde Hospital opened in 1930." (Richard Morris to Jean Cullen) 1917? Site of Old Street St Luke's sold to the Bank of England. Until later than 1958, the building was used as a printing works for Bank of England notes. 1930 "Third St Luke's" opened in Woodside Avenue, Muswell Hill after an "association with Middlesex Hospital" that began in 1923" 1930: Woodside Nerve Hospital 1940: St Luke's Woodside Hospital for Functional Nervous Disorders 1948 St Luke's Woodside, Woodside Avenue, Muswell Hill, London, N10 3HU 2001 250 year history booklet

Guy's Hospital Lunatic Ward not receiving paupers in 1844 1.1.1844: 25 private patients

Batavia Hospital Ship Moored in the Thames, off Woolwich, this ship received naval patients from Hoxton House when they were considered fit for convalesecence. It also sent patients to Hoxton House and Bethlem.

A second Middlesex County Asylum, known as Colney Hatch Asylum, was opened on 17.7.1851. It had 1,293 patients in 1858. Corridor form 1851 William Charles Hood (1824-1870), first medical superintendent. 1862 W.C. Hood appointed to Bethlem 1879 After-care Association for Poor and Friendless Female Convalescents on Leaving Asylums for the Insane 1881 Census. Household of Henry Hawkins 1889 Became a London County Council asylum 1893: A small room was set aside "for microscopic observations" to supplement gross anatomical findings by histological examination. See Claybury. In 1915 the Board of Control reported "under consideration the provision of a laboratory for clinical and pathological research". In 1924 it reported "a useful laboratory" staffed by a specially trained male nurse and supervised by an assistant medical officer. Hunter, R.A. and Macalpine, I. 1974 pp.165-166 Became Colney Hatch Mental Hospital from 1918 to 1937. "The Cockfosters extension on the Piccadilly line.. started at a ... slow pace. In February 1934 Arnos Grove station had served only 500,000 passengers.The proximity of a mental hospital, sewage farm and cemetery were blamed for hindering development." Colney Hatch was renamed Friern Mental Hospital in 1937. But even in 1955, when my grandfather became a patient, it still had to be explained that the new phrase was "mental hospital", and that this meant a different attitude to the one perpetuated by we schoolchildren calling one another "Colney Hatch cases". From 1959 it was Friern Hospital, Friern Barnet Road, New Southgate, London, (N11 3BP) (map). In 1971 Friern Hospital, had 1,862 beds. Hunter, R.A. and Macalpine, I. 1974, Psychiatry for the Poor is a substantial history of the asylum from 1851 to 1973, and one of the best insights into asylum life. Friern closed in 1993. It is a listed building which has been converted into luxury apartments (Princess Park Manor). At one time it was considered as a site for Middlesex University. You don't have to be mad to live here 2003 use: "Gated housing development" 1.11.2006 Visit to Princess Park Manor: A billboard advertises "Individually designed quality apartments set in thirty acres of stunning parkland". The parkland is the ground in front of the asylum, which is planted with trees. Barnet Borough have created Friern Village Park out of the land in front of the west wing. This is open to the public daily from dawn to dusk. The Middlesex coat of arms above the asylum says "East Saxons" Friern Cemetery: In 1883 a memorial to an unknown pauper lunatic was erected in the grounds of Colney Hatch Asylum. "2,696 inmates of the asylum were buried here from 1851-1873. The inscription recording the fact was removed after the advent of the Mental Health Act 1959 to unburden the hospital of its past. From 1873 patients were buried in the neighbouring Great Northern Cenetry 'where by a considerate arrangment of the visitors, funerals are privately conducted, and not in forma pauperis (Chaplain's report, CHA 1877) Hunter, R.A. and Macalpine, I. 1974 p.69) Two Metropolitan Asylum Board asylums were opened for chronic London patients in October 1870: Leavesden at Abbots Langley in Hertfordshire and Caterham Asylum in Surrey. Later asylums built by the Board were Darenth, Belmont and Tooting Bec. The Lunacy Commissioners visiting in 1904 were: Sidney Coupland, H.F. Gifford, F. Needham, Harold Urmson, E. Marriott Cooke, F. A. Inderwick, A. Hill Trevor. The Metropolitan Asylums Board was abolished in 1930, when its functions were transferred to London County Council This extract from a 1911 encyclopedia shows how the provision of "asylums" was only a small part of the Board's functions: "The Metropolitan Asylums Board, though established m 1867 purely as a poor-law authority for the relief of the sick, insane and infirm paupers, has become a central hospital authority for infectious diseases, with power to receive into its hospitals persons, who are not paupers, suffering from fever, smallpox or diphtheria. Both the Board and the County Council have certain powers and duties of sanitary authority for the purpose of epidemic regulations. The local sanitary authorities carry out the provisions of the Infectious Diseases (Notification and Prevention) Acts, which for London are embodied in the Public Health (London) Act 1891. The Board has asylums for the insane at Tooting Bec (Wandsworth), Ealing (for children); King's Langley, Hertfordshire; Caterham, Surrey; and Darenth, Kent. There are twelve fever hospitals, including northern and southern convalescent hospitals. For smallpox the Board maintains hospital ships moored in the Thames at Dartford, and a land establishment at the same place. There are land and river ambulance services." Peter Higginbotham has just (autumn 2004) added a comprehensive history of the Metropolitan Asylums Board to his website October 1870: Caterham Asylum opened Architects: Giles and Biven - Dual Pavilion May 1871 nearly 1,400 patients 1872: Long report of a visit (on the Rossbret site)   Rossbret picture 1878 An outbreak of enteric fever in Caterham and Redhill did not affect the asylum or the troops in Caterham barracks who were supplied with water from the asylum well. (R.H. Firth 1908 p.60) 1881 Census: Medical Superintendent: George Stanley Elliot, aged 36.Metropolitan District Asylum for Imbeciles, Caterham, Surrey. May also have been known as Caterham Lunatic Asylum for Safe Lunatics and Imbeciles. The names of patients are given in full, not just initials. 24.5.1920 "Ottington Street, Wolling Road, Camberwell. This is where my life began. After I was born, my mother was in bed, my Grandma Brewer heard a knock on the door... it was my dad coming home from the army" (Joseph Deacon p.13) 1920 Caterham Mental Hospital 1926 "my mother's life ended when I as six years old. My Auntie Em took me over, and Grandma Deacon looked after me for a little while. And my auntie had a lot of work to do... At seven years old, I went to Carshalton Hospital for more treatment. They could not understand me when I went to the toilet... Carshalton sent me away to Roehampton, Queen Mary's Hospital for more treatment, and the nurses were very good to me... On 12th February, 1928 my dad told me that I was coming to Caterham. On the following Thursday, 16th February, I came to Caterham. I was first nursed on the female ward" (Joseph Deacon pages 14-15). 1941 St Lawrence's Hospital, Caterham, CR3 5YA "The girls came to see me... They tried to speak to me but I could not answer. My friends told the girls I could not speak. They said they knew, my brother had told them... I was still working in the mat shop and in 1941 Mr Treece got two new boys from the female side. The boys were Ernie and Victor. Mr Treece asked Ernie to help me sort out he wool. When I wanted something or to tell him something I made some noises to make him understand. It was not easy at first but Ernie did not give in. He tried very hard until he began to understand me... [One] Sunday... my cousin Ann and her friend came to see me... I wanted to talk.. There was nobody who could understand me. I made signs and pointed to Ernie. Mr Harris understood me and brought Ernie and I introduced him to my cousin. He understood me. That's how it all began. This was the first time I started to talk a little. We asked her how she liked the A.T.S. I was twenty-two at the time. My cousin was very pleased that she could understand me. Ernie was very good. When she went home she told Grandma how she was able to speak to me through Ernie. (Joseph Deacon p.21-22) 1950s Peter, a Hackney boy, was on a ward with 60 patients. There were four rows of beds plus beds on the veranda. When the weather was bad, they cleared the beds and kicked a ball around the ward. His mother was horrified on her first visit at the thick chunks of bread plus chunks of cheese which were served for tea - But the residents had a terrific appetite. The "children" were taken out for walks in crocodiles. In those days, staff had to rely on patients to help with bathing. At 3pm one round of bathing started, at 7pm a second round. The residents wore old clothes - "like Meths drinkers in the East End". 1971 listed a Mental Handicap Hospital with 1,902 beds 1974 Tongue Tied by Joseph John Deacon, a resident in St Lawrence's since 1928, published by the National Society for Mentally Handicapped Children. "Joey Deacon has cerebral palsey, seriously affecting all four limbs and his speech and Ernie Roberts is the only person who can really understand him. But Ernie cannot read and write. So as Ernie listened to Joey's story and then repeated it intelligibly to Michael, Michael wrote it down. The handwritten version was then typed by Tom at the rate of four to six lines per day". 10.6.1981: St Lawrence's and Borocourt featured unfavourably in a television documentary Silent Minority "St Lawrences in the 1970s became known as you say through Joseph Deacon's book and film Tongue Tied, and from the documentary Silent Minority. Joseph lived in MC1 (Male C1) and spent a lot of his time on the cosy verandah. Across the airing court was another long verandah where the residents seen in Silent Minority spent their aimless days (MD1). MC1 was a well run homely ward. MD1 was a stark place. Just 10 yards of court separated them. And on the top floor above MD1 was MD3, the lock up ward. Joseph would have heard the shouts from up there when one of the residents went 'up the wall.' 'You'll be sent to D3' was a threat to patients from other wards. Most of the time it was relatively calm. It was a lock up ward, but many of the residents were let out unsupervised to go to work at the concrete works - making slabs and gnomes." (Alastair Fear, who met Joseph Deacon when working at St Lawrences in 1975-1976, and who also worked there, for a while, about the time of Silent Minority) See Timeline for the history of St Lawrence's The third Middlesex County Asylum was opened at Banstead, in Surrey, in 1877. See Miniature city under medical mayor - For "chronically insane pauper lunatics" - Also Banstead Places Architect: Frederick Hyde Pownall - Dual Pavilion Landscape Designer: Alexander MacKenzie National Grid Reference TQ 263 613 Address Sutton Lane, Sutton, Reigate, Surrey Database information that Banstead became a Surrey asylum is incorrect: "Banstead Asylum was built and maintained by the Middlesex Justices prior to 1889. It became the responsibility of the London County Council on 1 April 1889" (London Metropolitan Archives Catalogue), which is confirmed by the following: 1900 89 year old patient's death certificate shows him as dying from "chronic brain wastage" in "the London County Asylum, Banstead". (information from Richard Seymour) 1897/1898 Cheam Parish Council: Water and sewerage file - Correspondence re contamination of water supply from Banstead asylum burial ground 1.1.1927: 1,976 patients of whom all but 142 were Rate Aided. 845 were men, 1,131 women. In 1926 the proportion of recoveries to admissions was 20.0%. The proportion of deaths to the asylum population was 7.1% In 1960s and 1970s (about), part of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster Area Health Authority (West London) 1982: Plans for closure and concentration of services on Horton October 1986 Closed Demolished 1989 "High Down and Down View, two state-of-the-art prisons, were built on the site in the early 1990s" Archive link Middlesex JPs were discussing the need for a fourth asylum in 1881. This was to have been Claybury, but local government reorganisation in 1888 transferred this project to the new London County Council. Middlesex asylums after 1888 In 1889 Middlesex lost much of its population to the new London County Council. There was a massive reorgansiation of London asylums, which I am still trying to work out. Hanwell and Friern and Banstead became London County Council asylums. The Surrey County Asylum at Springfield became the Middlesex County Asylum. It may have been the only one until 1905 See Middlesex 1939 Ilford: Claybury Asylum at Woodford Bridge in Essex was opened in 1893. It was the fifth London County Council asylum. Built: 1889-1893 Architect: George Thomas Hine Peter Cracknell describes as the first Compact Arrow design. Edward Sackett was transferred from Brookwood in September 1896, and died from heart disease on 14.10.1899. Joseph Stockton died 20.10.1896 at London County Lunatic Asylum, Ilford, which was also the name of the asylum in 1900 (Registration District: Romford, Sub-District: Ilford) on the death certificate of Mr Hopson (55 years old), an upholsterer formerly of 19 Bee Hive Brick Lane, Whitechapel, who died there. His certificate was signed by the Medical Superintendent, Robert Youes (or Young?) [information from Joan Robblee]. The Central Pathology Laboratory Commissioners in Lunacy 1896 quoted Hunter, R.A. and Macalpine, I. 1974 p.165: "Even when the new Laboratory has been brought into use by the Specialist Pathologist for the County of London [Dr F.W. Mott at Claybury], there will still remain much useful work of this nature to be done in the several Asylums, for which due provision should be made". See Friern 1899 Start of Archives of Neurology from the Pathological Laboratory of the London County Asylums, Claybury, Essex Published: 1899-1907 and 1909-1934 Journal of Mental Science, April 1900, 46, 393: At Claybury Asylum provision is made for private patients who can claim a settlement in the county of London at a charge of 30 shillings a week, and for others at a charge of £2 (See 1890 Act) 1901 or 1902 Dr Macmillan, a medical officer at Claybury, read a paper on The History of Asylum Dysentery at Claybury to a meeting of the Southern Eastern Division of the Medico-Psychological Association. Dr Macmillan, himself, died of asylum dysentery soon after. (source) Report for the year ended 31.3.1902. Dr Robert Jones: medical superintendent. 2431 patients: 1015 men - 1416 women. 426 admissions during the year: 131 men and 295 women. 16% of men admitted had general paralysis. 14% of men and 9% of women were admitted suffering from alcoholic insanity. 148 patients were discharched recovered during the year, whilst 201 patients died. 50 died of general paralysis of the insane - 25 of tuberculosis - 24 of cardiac disease - 21 of colitis (asylum dysentery). "Asylum dysentery attacked 40 males and 81 females, and was responsible for 21 deaths, or over 10 per cent. of the total deaths." A 1911 Encyclopedia entry for Ilford says "Claybury Hall is a lunatic asylum (1893) of the London County Council". About 1952: Thomas Bewley's recollections of the dysentery wards 1955 Denis Martin appointed 1962 Denis Vincent Martin Adventure in Psychiatry: Social Change in a Mental Hospital With an introduction by J.S. Harris Oxford : Cassirer 31.3.1994: 361 patients Claybury Hospital closed in 1997. Its address was Claybury Hospital, Woodford Green, Essex, 1GB 8BY. (map). Records: London Metropolitan Archives Simon Cornwall: Demolished and converted. Now Repton Park. (Claybury Wood) 2003 use: "Gated housing development" There is a book: A Hospital looks at itself - Essays from Claybury Goodmayes Hospital, Barley Lane, Goodmayes, Ilford. Essex. lG3 8XJ (map) External map shows boundaries proposed in 1885 for the new borough of West Ham   In 1898, the first Labour controlled local council was elected - West Ham. The building of a new lunatic asylum and the declaration of May 1st as a public holiday are listed amongst its many achievements (external link). On 18.3.1920 a stampless viewcard of Calais was addressed to West Ham Mental Hospital. George Jacomb of Plaistow died 8.1.1931 at West Ham Corporation Mental Hospital Goodmayes Essex. He left £1,056 9s. 1d to be administered by Ellen Mary Jacomb spinster. There was a stationary steam engine (derelict in 1980) here that was manufactured by Belliss & Morcom Ltd. of Birmingham in 1938. New adult acute mental health facilities were being built at Goodmayes Hospital, to open March 2002, and "re-provide" 107 beds for people living in Redbridge - 62 for adults with acute mental illness, thirty beds for the elderly mentally ill and fifteen psychiatric intensive care beds. "Goodmayes is getting its first new facilities for seventy years". "The unit will have all single bedrooms, some with en-suite facilities, and has fully taken into account Government guidelines on sex segregation". "Patients will really feel the benefit of receiving their services in a purpose built, modern and light unit." Mental Health Matters North East London Mental Health Trust. Issue 9, July 2001. Brookside Young People's Unit, Barley Lane, Goodmayes, Ilford. Essex. lG3 8XJ (Same address as Goodmayes) "Mental Illness". Shown in a 1979 Directory as having 20 beds 31.12.1977. Bexley Asylum at Bexley in Kent was opened by the London County Council in 1898. (map link). Nigel Roberts has a set of plans for "the Heath Asylum Baldwyn's Park Bexley", with the name of "Geo T Hine 1896" on. The chapel was designed to seat 850 people. David Cochrane speaks of a "striking similarity to the design" Hine had used at Claybury Compact Arrow Website (October 2006) on the history of Bexley Hospital In 1907 a death certificate was signed "London County Asylum, The Heath, Dartford, U.D." (information from Michael Ball). The City of London Asylum at Stone was on the opposite side of Dartford. The Bexley Asylum became Bexley Hospital, Old Bexley Lane, Bexley, DA5 2AW. It has now closed. Between 2001 and 2007, Dartford Council plan to build houses on it, plus a new primary school and the "retention of community facilities" (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister). Kingswood Ward (archive) was a rehabilitation ward for adults with severe and enduring mental health problems. External link to Edenwood, Old Bexley Lane, Bexley - (partial archive) 27.11.2002: Bexley Water Tower comes down (partial archive) - See timeline. 5.5.2006 "I live in Bexley and the local asylum was known as Bexly Mental Hospital, it has now been demolished and is a vast estate of new houses which is still growing. They have kept the main building, i think because it was listed, and turned it into a fitness centre for the local residents" Susan Hammond - Rootsweb archive London County Council, established in 1889, inherited many asylums, and built many more. The ones it inherited from Middlesex were Hanwell, Colney Hatch, and Banstead and the project to build an asylum at Claybury. From Surrey it inherited Cane Hill and may have temporarily inherited Wandsworth. If so, Wandsworth (Springfield) was passed on (sold?) to Middlesex. The ones it built included Claybury, Bexley and the five Epsom asylums (below). In 1930, it took over institutions from the Metropolitan Asylums Board.

Epsom Protection Society website The Epsom Group 1890? London County Council bought all the land belonging to the Manor of Horton in Epsom, Surrey, to develop a complex of asylums which was to become the largest in Europe. The five hospitals built were The Manor (1899), Horton (1902), Ewell Epileptic Colony (1903) (later St Ebba's) Long Grove (1907), and West Park (1921). Simon Cornwall's tour of all 18.4.2003 This scan is from Barnett's Street Plan of Epsom and Ewell, purchased about 1973. The online Horton Country Park map (with history) shows the area on the east of this map. The usual approach to the institutions, when they were built, may have been from Epsom station via Chase Road to Hook Road, then up Hook Road to Long Grove, and so on. This is suggested by the houses along Hook Road going north from the railway bridge. Dates and architectural features suggest that many of these were built as homes for the staff. Near the bridge there are several with the date 1896, when the Manor was being built. Then there are ones dated 1902, when Horton was opened. These are followed by ones dated 1903, when Ewell Epileptic Colony was opened. Common facilities David Cochrane (1988 p.258) says that water, gas and electricity supplies were centralised for all of the estate. Sewage disposal was centralised. Similarly, the cemetery and the rail link to Ewell were for all the asylums. Sports centre built round boiler-house. David Lloyd Sports Centre, Epsom, website 1925: The Branch Secretary of the Epsom branch of the National Asylum Workers Union was Mr R.C. Baker, who lived at 20 Court Farm Gardens, [Manor Green Road], Epsom [post code now KT19 8SL]. This is in the back streets in the crook of Hook Road and Long Grove Road - south of the cricket ground. The Manor (which was a certified institution, not an asylum) had its own branch.. The open land north of West Park, and circling Long Grove on the south, east and north, is now Horton Country Park (External Link). (map) - See also ride and drive web. This land (or part of it) was farms for West Park and Long Grove. These became "surplus to requirements" and were bought (1973) by Epsom and Ewell Council to create the park. 11.6.2002: Hansard: Commons debate on future of sites - Mental Health Services (Mid-Surrey) - 1.29 pm - Westminster Hall MP's latest news The Manor Asylum (Epsom) or Manor House at Horton was originally meant as a temporary asylum, whilst Horton Asylum was built. Building may have begun in 1896. The asylum was opened in 1899. It consisted of the existing Manor House (restored) for staff, and corrugated iron buildings for patients. The scheme was disapproved by the Lunacy Commission, but approved by the Home Secretary. The architect was William C Clifford Smith, the Asylum Committee's chief engineer. It was opened for 700 female patients of the "comparatively quiet and harmless class". (Cochrane, D. 1988 p.257) Journal of Mental Science, April 1900, 46, 393: Provision made for about 60 female private patients at a weekly charge of about 15/- (not including clothes) (See 1890 Act) By 1901 approval was given for extra accommodation for 110 male patients required for manual labour power. (Cochrane, D. 1988 p.257) Became The Manor Certified Institution from 1921 to an unknown date. 1925: The Branch Secretary of the Nation Asylum Workers Union at Manor (Epsom) was Mr George G. Galey who lived at 4 Percy Cottages, Elm Road, Claygate (about three mile away in a straight line - perhaps he cycled). The other four hospitals seemed to have been one branch (Epsom). Became The Manor, Horton Lane, Epsom, KT19 8NL. 1962 (Hospital Plan) 1,200 beds in 1960. Plans to rebuild by 1971. By 1975 expected have 500 mental subnormality patients, and there to be another 700 in St Ebbas (converted) and 500 in "Horton new hospital". 1971 The Manor, Epsom 1,067 beds, 1,034 patients on 31.12.1971. 16% in dormitories with over fifty patients. (60% of adults sleeping in groups of less than 30. 93% of children sleeping in groups of less than 20, but the other 7% of children in dormitories of 30 or more). 25 security beds in locked wards. 1979 Manor Hospital Mid-Surrey Health District's mental handicap hospital with 800 beds July 1998 efforts to stop development March 2002 Progress report on redevelopment, and plans for other sites. Some ex-patients have been rehoused on Ethel Bailey Close. The rest of the site has been entirely redeveloped into around 340 new houses & flats. Re-development completed about 2000. Peter Cracknell's photographic tour 2003 use: "Housing" In addition to the buildings on the main site, The Manor had a large annexe called Hollywood Lodge on the triangle of land between West Park Hospital, Horton Lane and Christ Church Road." Christine Lawes The Manor Farm In reponse to the question "was there a farm on the land to the south?", Christine Lawes wrote "There ... was a self-sufficient market garden, worked by the patients in times past. It bordered Horton Lane. Up to about 1994 it was still a thriving organic market garden and sold fruit and vegetables to the public. After that date it gradually became more difficult to maintain as the residents were being moved out. At least up to a couple of years ago it had become more of a garden centre, selling plants to the public from some specially converted barns. I believe the garden centre is probably still there. Horton Asylum, at Epsom was opened in 1902. Simon Cornwall: Horton Asylum, Epsom, Surrey (Epsom Cluster number 2) Originally: Seventh London County Council Asylum. Built: 1902 Architect: George Thomas Hine (replica of Bexley Heath Asylum) Horton War Hospital (1915-1918); Horton Mental Hospital (1918-1939); 1920 John Robert Lord's story and reflections on the wa