BETHLEM HOSPITAL

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: CLA/065
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: BETHLEM HOSPITAL
Date(s)	: 1675-1859
Level of description	: Collection
Extent	: 0.2 linear metres
Name of creator(s)	: Corporation of London

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Bethlem Royal Hospital was founded in 1247 as the priory of St Mary of Bethlehem. By the fourteenth century it was already treating the insane. In 1547 it came under the control of the City of London as one of the five 'Royal' hospitals seized during the dissolution of the monasteries and re-founded as a secular institution. The Corporation turned Bethlem into a lunatic asylum and it was commonly known as 'Bedlam'. The hospital was put under joint administration with Bridewell Hospital until 1948.

In 1676 the hospital moved to Moorfields, in a baroque building designed by Robert Hooke. The hospital moved to its third site in 1815, at St George's Fields, Southwark, part of which still survives as the Imperial War Museum.

Bethlem moved to a site in Surrey in 1930. With the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948, Bethlem was split from Bridewell and joined with the Maudsley Hospital Camberwell, to form a single hospital. In 1999 they were formed into the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, which provides mental health services throughout Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham and Croydon as well as specialist services across the UK.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of Bethlem Hospital, 1675-1859, including printed notice, issued by the Governors, seeking subscriptions for the erection of a new hospital in St. George's Fields and other papers relating to the removal to St. George's Fields; instructions for persons applying for the admission of patients into Bethlem Hospital, 1859; rules and orders of Bethlem Hospital, 1854; various other administrative papers.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

In sections according to catalogue.

Conditions governing access:

Available for general access.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright: City of London.

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Corporation of London Records Office.

Allied Materials

Related material:

The Bethlem Royal Hospital Archives and Museum Service hold the majority of the records of Bethlem Hospital, contact them at: Archives and Museum, Bethlem Royal Hospital, Monks Orchard Road, Beckenham, Kent, BR3 3BX.

For Corporation of London records relating to hospitals, almshouses and workhouses, see CLA/064: Almshouses and Hospitals, CLA/065: Bethlem Hospital, CLA/066: Bridewell Hospital, CLA/067: Christ's Hospital, CLA/068: Royal Hospitals, CLA/069: Saint Thomas' Hospital, CLA/070: Saint Bartholomew's Hospital, CLA/071: Emanuel Hospital, CLA/075: London Workhouse, COL/CC/EHC: Court of Common Council Emanuel Hospital Committee, COL/CC/LUC: Court of Common Council Lunatic Asylum Committee, COL/CC/RHC: Court of Common Council Royal Hospitals Committee, COL/CHD/IC: Chamberlain's Department: Institutions and Courts, COL/CT: Charities, and COL/PL, COL/PLD/PL, COL/SVD/PL and COL/TSD/AD for building plans. There are also various papers in the Corporation of London collection relating to public health. See the Hospital Records Database on The National Archives website for the locations of hospital records held in other repositories.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
February 2009