Bethlem Royal Hospital

The Bethlem Royal Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in London. It is commonly referred to as Bedlam, a corruption of the English word for Bethlehem. The term bedlam has found as a synonym for chaos and tumult input into the English language. In addition to the " Fool's Tower " in Vienna is one of the oldest facilities for people with a mental disorder. Although it is one of the pioneers in modern times a humanitarian therapy, today it is still used for cruel and inhumane conditions in the 17th and 18th centuries known.

The hospital was built in 1330 at the present site of the London Liverpool Street Train Station, from 1357 patients were admitted with mental illness. In the early 16th century, the name Betlam was first listed on city maps. The conditions were devastating, patient care was restricted to the bare minimum, unruly inmates were chained. Around thirty inmates were kept at that time average in the building. In 1675 Bedlam moved to a building outside the city limits, which was designed by Robert Hooke. The playwright Nathaniel Lee was there for five years in prison. For the first time the " mentally ill " in 1700 were referred to as patients, 1725-1734 told you the building into two stations for " Curable " and " Incurable " one. 1815 Bedlam was moved to a new building to Southwark, where the Imperial War Museum is located today. Finally, she moved in 1930 to the south of London, where he is a resident in Bromley today.