Bethlem Hospital

Visit to Bethlem Royal Hospital - 26th February 2009

Bethlem Royal Hospital moved to its present 250 acre location in Monks Orchard Road in 1930. It was founded in 1247 as the priory of St Mary of Bethlehem on what is now the site of Liverpool Street station. This building was replaced in 1676 by a much grander structure designed by Robert Hooke at Moorfields. On each of the two main floors, huge galleries ran the length of the building, with open work iron grilles across the centre to divide the male and female wings.

The hospital moved again in 1815 to St George’s Fields, Southwark, part of which has become the Imperial War Museum. It followed the same pattern as that of Moorfields but with a central administration block dividing the male and female quarters.

For the final move, the decision was taken not to replicate the previous monolithic buildings, but to design the hospital on the ‘villa system’. Each ward occupied its own building with kitchen, dining room and garden. In 1948, with the creation of the NHS, it became part of the Maudsley Hospital group and continues to provide services for south London as well as nationally.

Interior of the attractive and unusual chapel, built in 1930 and now partly converted to a mosque. Various coats of arms decorate the side windows and at the west end is a design based on a Willam Morris print.
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From 1998 this building was used by patients, under the direction of ceramic artist Timothy Clapcott, and to serve as an art gallery. To provide occupation and gain new skills, some of the patients work has been used to decorate the building in this delightful way. At the far end is a poem by Richard Cooper called Me and Mr Normal.
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The Priory of St. Mary of Bethlehem, or Bedlame as it is shown on the map above, was built in 1247 just outside the City of London walls. The site is now occupied by Liverpool Street station. It quickly lost its religious function but began to treat the insane from around 1400. From 1547 it was governed by the City of London.
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In 1676 the hospital was moved to the other side of Moor Fields at what is now Finsbury Circus. With male and female wings, it housed over 200 patients, both short and long-stay. In the centre are just visible two statues, to the left and right of the gate, which now reside in the hospital museum.
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The two statues from the Moor Fields building survived the later transfer in 1815 to Southwark, now part of the Imperial War Museum, and then on to the present site in 1930. This figure represents Melancholy Madness, one of the two types into which patients were classified.
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The other figure to be preserved from Moor Fields represents Raving Madness, as can be identified by the chains worn to protect either the patient or his carers. Part of the 1676 hospital can be seen in the picture behind the figure, his nose almost pointing to the location of the statues.
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Every year a new register, one for males and one for females, was used to record the admission of patients, with their problems, symptoms and treatments all carefully written down. This particular entry, from February 7th 1899, was for a Charles Pickering, aged 35, from north London, making his third visit. He was recorded as suffering from religion and overwork! His treatment seemed mainly to be rest, but by August he wrote to his doctor from his home thanking him for curing him.
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In addition to written records, there are also a number of photographs of patients. This gentleman faced court charged with murder but was sent to Bethlem for treatment.
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This is Emma Richards in the 1850s. She was a patient at the hospital several times, but it seems each visit followed the birth of a child so it may have been post natal depression, a melancholia, from which she suffered. However, it can be seen that she recovered and was photographed again in a much better mental state.
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