Dreaded and reviled by many, Britain's nineteenth-century asylums provide a
unique window on how the Victorian's housed and treated the mentally ill.
Despite initially good intentions, asylums became warehouses for society's
outcasts, where cures were few. Hidden in the countryside, they could eventually
be found throughout the British Empire, on the Continent and in North America,
with 120 or so in England and Wales alone.
Today many asylum buildings have gone or are threatened. Most have closed as
hospitals since the 1980s, and either been demolished or turned into private
homes, their original use forgotten. But the memory of them lives on as a
fascinating part of Victorian life that survived into modern times. 'The
Victorian Asylum' gives an insight into their history, their often imposing
architecture and their later decline.
Contents:
Introduction
Early Asylums: From Bedlam to Moral Therapy
Building the Asylum to Cure
Life in the Asylum
Specialist Asylums
The Last Days of the Asylum
Further Reading
Places to Visit
Index
