History

Although Bethlem Royal Hospital is the oldest psychiatric institution with a continous history from 1247 to the present, its move to the south-eastern suburbs of London took place in the early twentieth century, and it is the only surviving example in England of a hospital built according to the continental 'villa system'. Tours will introduce visitors to the Hospital's history as well as to its contemporary mental healthcare practice.

Notes on Bethlem Hospital

Bethlem Hospital was founded in 1247 as the Priory of St Mary of Bethlehem, and originally located at Bishopsgate, just outside the City of London (where Liverpool Street station is today). From the end of the 14th century, Bethlem has been associated with the care and treatment of mental illness: in the Elizabethan period the shortened name ‘Bedlam’ became a synonym for chaos or disorder.

However, the hospital remained small until its move to Moorfields in 1676. Here, a grand baroque building was designed for 120 patients. In 1815, Bethlem moved again, to St George’s Fields, where part of the Victorian hospital remains today as the Imperial War Museum. As London expanded, the governors decided on another relocation: this time to the Bromley/Croydon borders.

The hospital governors purchased the Monks Orchard Estate in the 1920s. Previously owned by the wealthy Loyd family, the land had been vacant for some years. The original buildings were largely demolished, but some of the estate walls and formal gardens remain.

The hospital was designed by Charles Elcock, and is architecturally significant as the first psychiatric hospital in the country to be built in the ‘villa’ style popular on the continent. Rather than the grand old Victorian wings found in the old county asylums, the wards were built as separate, self-contained units. This design has suited the changes to Bethlem over the years: today, the hospital contains a variety of specialist wards, accepting patients from around the country. These include a Mother and Baby Unit, inpatient facilities for the treatment of eating disorders and a National Psychosis Unit.

The hospital was officially opened by Queen Mary in 1930. Many of the buildings around the front entrance date to this time, including the gate lodge, and the chapel, dedicated to the wife of Viscount Wakefield. Alongside Lionel Faudel Phillips, Wakefield was responsible for the hospital’s move here. The chapel was damaged in summer 1944 by German V-I rockets. Miraculously no one was injured, but virtually every building on site was damaged.

Alexandra House (opposite the chapel) was originally nurses’ accommodation. Until the early 1990s, unmarried nurses lived onsite. The shift away from residential accommodation for staff is one of the major changes in hospital life in the 20th century.

In 2015, Bethlem Museum of the Mind and Bethlem Gallery relocted in the main administration block of the hospital, the Museum providing a leading community information and learning resource for the history of mental health care and treatment, and the Gallery being a mental health community resource for the arts.

To accommodate these uses, the building was extensively refurbished, according to the designs of architects Fraser Brown MacKenna. Its original Art Deco features have been made more prominent, and it is wheelchair accessible throughout.