Bethlem Royal Hospital in London, known as Bedlam, is one of the world's oldest mental health treatment facilities. She has been receiving patients since the 14th century. But the fame of this hospital was brought not by its solid age, but by a scandalous sad story, after which the word "bedlam" became synonymous with confusion and disorder.
Bedlam was founded by the Italian bishop Joffredo di Prefetti in 1247, during the reign of King Henry III, as a hostel of the Brotherhood of the New Order of St. Mary.
The facility was primarily used to help raise money for the Crusades through alms. The building was located in the parish of St. Botolph in Bishopsgate behind the London Wall. Today, this site is the Liverpool Street tube station in London.
Plan of the first Bethlem
No one knows exactly when the institution was transformed into a psychiatric hospital, but in 1330 it was already a hospital, and in 1357 the first patients appeared here. Bedlam at that time had 12 patient rooms, housing for employees, a kitchen and a courtyard.
The hospital remained in its original location for the next 400 years until 1675, when it moved north from London to Mooresfield as the old building was too small and needed expansion.
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The new building for 150 people was designed by the architect Robert Hooke. In front of the hospital gates, the architect Kai Gabriel Sibber installed two statues called "Melancholy" and "Wild Insanity".
"Melancholy" and "Wild Insanity", 1680
People suffering from depression, dementia, schizophrenia, epilepsy, anxiety, and other mental illnesses are known to have been terribly mistreated in this hospital and experimented with by local doctors, who were called "guardians".
At that time, Bedlam was shaken by scandals. One inmate died after his intestines burst as the unfortunate man was chained in a tiny cage where he had to sit bent over for years. Others slept naked on straw in the cold. And literally all patients were tortured by the "guardians" - the sadists.
For example, the hospital's “cure” program included shackles, chains, and cold baths. Patients were often chained to walls and starved to death. And the usual diet of the patients was extremely poor (cereals, bread, water), there was no talk of vegetables or fruits.
One of the most brutal treatments in Bedlam was "rotational therapy," as the guardians called it. The patient was seated on a chair suspended with ropes from the ceiling and spun to more than 100 revolutions in one minute. This went on for several hours. The result was usually vomiting and extreme dizziness, but paradoxically, there was occasional improvement.
Patients were also "treated" with bloodletting and cupping. The treatment was so terrible that Bedlam did not accept all patients, but only those who could survive the bullying. And even then, not everyone survived in the hospital. Modern research has uncovered mass graves at St. George's Fields (where the mental hospital moved in 1810). Only those who died in Betlem were buried in them.
Bethlem Hospital in St. George Fields
In the 17th century, someone from the management of the hospital came up with a "brilliant" idea - why not earn extra money from unfortunate patients. For just 2p, anyone was allowed to come to the hospital to see the insane patients.
All this was "served with sauce" so that people supposedly clearly saw what a vicious life leads to. People from all over the UK flocked to Bedlam in search of entertainment. Many masters of photography have become frequent visitors to the hospital, creating patient galleries.
About 96,000 people visited the hospital every year, which naturally irritated the patients madly. In 1930, the hospital moved to Beckenham and remains there to this day. The days when patients in Bedlam were subjected to horrific cruelty and experiments are over, but the institution's notoriety has remained for centuries.