Bedford Lunatic Asylum

Last updated

Bedford Lunatic Asylum
BedfordLunaticAsylum.JPG
1820 Drawing of the Asylum by Thomas Fisher
Bedford Lunatic Asylum
Bedfordshire UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location within Bedfordshire
Geography
Location Bedford, United Kingdom
Coordinates 52°07′16″N0°28′16″W / 52.121°N 0.471°W / 52.121; -0.471 Coordinates: 52°07′16″N0°28′16″W / 52.121°N 0.471°W / 52.121; -0.471
Organisation
Type Psychiatric hospital
Services
Emergency department No Accident & Emergency
History
Opened1812
Closed1860
Links
Lists Hospitals in the United Kingdom

The Bedford Lunatic Asylum was a mental health facility. It opened in 1812 and closed in 1860.

Contents

History

Samuel Whitbread headed the committee which commissioned the asylum. The Bedford Lunatic Asylum, designed by John Wing, was opened in April 1812. In 1845, the UK parliament passed a new act requiring that counties either build their own asylums or operate an asylum jointly with another county. Many other counties did not build asylums like Bedford, [1] so there were now twice as many inmates in the asylum and not enough staff to help with their needs. Bedford's neighbouring counties, Hertfordshire and Huntingdonshire, then sent patients to Bedford. In 1860 the three counties combined asylums in Fairfield Hospital near Arlesey and the Bedford Lunatic Asylum closed soon after. [1]

Renovation

The site of the asylum is now a residential building. The bodies of patients that died at the hospital are now buried underneath the children's playground. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

Psychiatric hospital Hospital specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders

Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health units or behavioral health units, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialize only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients. Others may specialize in the temporary or permanent containment of patients who need routine assistance, treatment, or a specialized and controlled environment due to a psychological disorder. Patients often choose voluntary commitment, but those whom psychiatrists believe to pose significant danger to themselves or others may be subject to involuntary commitment and involuntary treatment. Psychiatric hospitals may also be called psychiatric wards/units when they are a subunit of a regular hospital.

Glenside, Bristol

Glenside campus is the home of the Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences at the University of the West of England (UWE), in Bristol. It is located on Blackberry Hill in the suburb of Fishponds. Its clocktower is a prominent landmark, visible from the M32 motorway. Several of the buildings on the site are Grade II listed.

Barnwood House Hospital Hospital in England

Barnwood House Hospital was a private mental hospital in Barnwood, Gloucester, England. It was founded by the Gloucester Asylum Trust in 1860 as Barnwood House Institution and later became known as Barnwood House Hospital. The hospital catered for well-to-do patients, with reduced terms for those in financial difficulties. It was popular with the military and clergy, and once counted an Archbishop amongst its patients. During the late nineteenth century Barnwood House flourished under superintendent Frederick Needham, making a healthy profit and receiving praise from the Commissioners in Lunacy. Even the sewerage system was held up as a model of good asylum practice. After the First World War service patients, including war poet and composer Ivor Gurney, were treated with a regime of psychotherapy and recreations such as cricket.

Athens Lunatic Asylum United States historic place

The Athens Lunatic Asylum, now a mixed-use development known as The Ridges, was a Kirkbride Plan mental hospital operated in Athens, Ohio, from 1874 until 1993. During its operation, the hospital provided services to a variety of patients including Civil War veterans, children, and those declared mentally unwell. After a period of disuse the property was redeveloped by the state of Ohio. Today, The Ridges are a part of Ohio University and house the Kennedy Museum of Art as well as an auditorium and many offices, classrooms, and storage facilities.

Fulbourn Hospital Hospital in Cambridge

Fulbourn Hospital is a mental health facility located between the Cambridgeshire village of Fulbourn and the Cambridge city boundary at Cherry Hinton, about 5 miles (8 km) south-east of the city centre. It is managed by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust. The Ida Darwin Hospital site is situated behind Fulbourn Hospital. It is run and managed by the same trust, with both hospitals sharing the same facilities and staff pool.

Kings County Hospital Center Hospital in New York, United States

Kings County Hospital Center is a municipal hospital located in the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. It is owned and operated by NYC Health + Hospitals, a municipal agency that runs New York City's public hospitals. It has been affiliated with SUNY Downstate College of Medicine since Downstate's founding as Long Island College Hospital in 1860. Kings County is a member of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation.

St Bernards Hospital, Hanwell psychiatric hospital in London, UK

St Bernard's Hospital, also known as Hanwell Insane Asylum and the Hanwell Pauper and Lunatic Asylum, was an asylum built for the pauper insane, opening as the First Middlesex County Asylum in 1831. Some of the original buildings are now part of the headquarters for the West London Mental Health NHS Trust (WLMHT).

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum United States historic place

The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, subsequently the Weston State Hospital, was a Kirkbride psychiatric hospital that was operated from 1864 until 1994 by the government of the U.S. state of West Virginia, in the city of Weston. Weston State Hospital got its name in 1913 which was used while patients occupied it, but was changed back to its originally commissioned, unused name, the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, after being reopened as a tourist attraction.

Cauldwell, Bedford Human settlement in England

Cauldwell is an electoral ward and area within the town of Bedford, England.

Brookwood Hospital Hospital in England

Brookwood Hospital at Knaphill in Surrey, was established in 1867 by Surrey Quarter Sessions as the second County Asylum, the first being Springfield Asylum in Tooting (1840). A third asylum, Cane Hill Hospital at Coulsdon in the eastern part of the county, followed in 1882.

South Carolina State Hospital Hospital in South Carolina, United States

The South Carolina State Hospital is a publicly funded state-run psychiatric hospital in Columbia, South Carolina. Founded in 1821 as the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum, it was one of the first public mental hospitals established in the United States. The Mills Building, its first building, was designed by early American architect Robert Mills, and is a National Historic Landmark. The hospital had more than 1,000 patients in 1900, but with the transition of mental health facilities to community settings, it is now much smaller, occupying a small portion of its campus, with other parts housing offices and facilities of the state's Department of Mental Health.

Fairfield Hospital, Bedfordshire Hospital in Fairfield, United Kingdom

Fairfield Hospital in Fairfield, Bedfordshire, England was a psychiatric hospital from 1860 to 1999. It is a Grade II listed building.

Kew Asylum Hospital in Victoria, Australia

Kew Lunatic Asylum is a decommissioned psychiatric hospital located between Princess Street and Yarra Boulevard in Kew, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. Operational from 1871 to 1988, Kew was one of the largest asylums ever built in Australia. Later known as Willsmere, the complex of buildings were constructed between 1864 and 1872 to the design of architects G.W. Vivian and Frederick Kawerau of the Victorian Public Works Office to house the growing number of "lunatics", "inebriates", and "idiots" in the Colony of Victoria.

Stanley Royd Hospital Hospital in West Yorkshire, England

The Stanley Royd Hospital, earlier named the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum, was a mental health facility in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. It was managed by the Wakefield and Pontefract Community Health NHS Trust.

Knowle, Hampshire Human settlement in England

Knowle is a village with mainly 21st century shops and businesses in the Winchester district of Hampshire, England that sits high on the left bank of the Meon between the Southampton and Portsmouth conurbations. It is in the south of the civil parish of Wickham in which it ranks in population about 25% behind Wickham. Its nearest town is Fareham, adjoining an inlet of Portsmouth Harbour approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) south-east.

St. Brendans Hospital, Dublin Hospital in North Dublin, Ireland

St. Brendan's Hospital was a psychiatric facility located in the north Dublin suburb of Grangegorman. It formed part of the mental health services of Dublin North East with its catchment area being North West Dublin. It is now the site of a modern mental health facility known as the "Phoenix Care Centre". Since the official opening of the Richmond Lunatic Asylum in 1815 the Grangegorman site has continuously provided institutional facilities for the reception of the mentally ill until the present day. As such the Phoenix Care Centre represents the continuation of the oldest public psychiatric facility in Ireland.

Porirua Lunatic Asylum was a psychiatric hospital located in Porirua. Established in 1887, it was at one time the largest hospital in New Zealand. The patients ranged from those with psychotic illnesses, to the senile, or alcoholics.

Rainhill Hospital Hospital in Merseyside, England

Rainhill Hospital was a very large psychiatric hospital complex that was located in Rainhill, formerly Lancashire but now Merseyside, England.

Bellsdyke Hospital Former psychiatric hospital at Larbert, Falkirk from 1869 to 1997

Bellsdyke Hospital, also known as Stirling District Lunatic Asylum ('SDLA') or Stirling District Asylum, is a former psychiatric hospital at Larbert, Falkirk that was opened in June 1869 and largely closed in 1997. It was an asylum set up by the Stirling District Lunacy Board.

Royal Dundee Liff Hospital Hospital in Angus, Scotland

The Royal Dundee Liff Hospital, previously known as Dundee Lunatic Asylum and Dundee Royal Lunatic Asylum, was a mental health facility originally established in 1812 in Dundee, Scotland. It was originally located in premises in Albert Street Dundee, but later moved out of the town to new buildings in the nearby parish of Liff and Benvie. Buildings at Liff included Greystanes House, which was the main building, and, Gowrie House, which was the private patients' facility. Both Grade B listed buildings.

References

  1. 1 2 Edwards, Susan (1 January 1993). "A proper house: Bedford Lunatic Asylum (1812–1860)". Medical History. Medical Hististory. 37 (1): 96–97. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
  2. "The Lunatic Asylum, Bedford". Cecil Higgins Art Gallery. Archived from the original on 17 July 2006. Retrieved 23 September 2018.

Further reading