Bedlam

Bethlem Hospital is the oldest mental institution in the world, to many famously known as Bedlam: a chaotic madhouse that brutalised its patients. Paul Chambers explores the 800-year history of Bethlem and reveals fascinating details of its ambivalent relationship with London and its inhabitants, the life and times of the hospitals more famous patients, and the rise of a powerful reform movement to tackle the institutions notorious policies. Here the whole story of Bethlem Hospital is laid bare to a new audience, charting its well-intended beginnings to its final disgrace and reform.