Hanwell Asylum
Encyclopedia
The County Asylum at Hanwell
Hanwell
Hanwell is a town situated in the London Borough of Ealing in west London, between Ealing and Southall. The motto of Hanwell Urban District Council was Nec Aspera Terrent...

, also known as Hanwell Insane Asylum, and Hanwell Pauper and Lunatic Asylum, was built for the pauper insane and is now the West London Mental Health (NHS) Trust
West London Mental Health (NHS) Trust
The West London Mental Healthcare NHS Trust was established 1 October 2000.The head quarters is situated in St. Bernard's Hospital Building...

 (WLMHT). The 2nd Middlesex was Colney Hatch Asylum
Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum
Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum was an early psychiatric hospital located in Colney Hatch in what is now the London Borough of Barnet. The hospital was in operation from 1851 to 1993....

, opened in 1851, and the 3rd was Banstead Asylum in Surrey, opened in 1877.

Hanwell was the first purpose-built asylum in England and Wales opening in 1831, there were earlier asylums such as the York Retreat but these used converted houses. It is quite possible that Hanwell was the first purpose-built asylum in the world.

Its first superintendent, Dr William Charles Ellis, was known in his lifetime for his pioneering work and his adherence to his "great principle of therapeutic employment", developed at his previous post at Warwickshire Asylum. Sceptical contemporaries were amazed that at Hanwell
Hanwell
Hanwell is a town situated in the London Borough of Ealing in west London, between Ealing and Southall. The motto of Hanwell Urban District Council was Nec Aspera Terrent...

 such therapy speeded recovery. This greatly pleased the visiting Justices of the Peace (JPs) as it reduced the long term cost of keeping each patient. Under the third superintendent John Conolly
John Conolly
John Conolly , English psychiatrist, was born at Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, of an Irish family. He spent four years as a lieutenant in the Cambridgeshire Militia and lived for a year in France before embarking on a medical career.He graduated with an MD degree at University of Edinburgh in 1821...

 the institution became famous as the first large asylum to dispense with all mechanical restraints.

The asylum is next to the village of Hanwell
Hanwell
Hanwell is a town situated in the London Borough of Ealing in west London, between Ealing and Southall. The motto of Hanwell Urban District Council was Nec Aspera Terrent...

 but parochially belongs to the suburb of Southall
Southall
Southall is a large suburban district of west London, England, and part of the London Borough of Ealing. It is situated west of Charing Cross. Neighbouring places include Yeading, Hayes, Hanwell, Heston, Hounslow, Greenford and Northolt...

 (and before a boundary change it was in Norwood
Norwood Green
Norwood Green is a place in the London Borough of Ealing in London, England. It is a suburban development situated west of Charing Cross and northeast of Heathrow Airport...

). It is about 8 miles or 13 km west of Central London and 6 miles (10 km) south-east of Uxbridge
Uxbridge
Uxbridge is a large town located in north west London, England and is the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. It forms part of the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is located west-northwest of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres...

. (O/S map ed 1896)
The building lies on a gently sloping river gravel terrace, a common feature of the Thames Valley
Thames Valley
The Thames Valley Region is a loose term for the English counties and towns roughly following the course of the River Thames as it flows from Oxfordshire in the west to London in the east. It includes parts of Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, North Hampshire, Surrey and west London...

. The land immediately to the east was further eroded by the River Brent
River Brent
The Brent is a river within Greater London which is a tributary of the River Thames. It is 17.9 miles long, running north-east to south-west, and it joins the Thames on the Tideway at Brentford, Hounslow.- Hydronymy and etymology :...

, which flows along its eastern perimeter. At its southern boundary is the Grand Union Canal
Grand Union Canal
The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. Its main line connects London and Birmingham, stretching for 137 miles with 166 locks...

 and a flight of six locks
Lock (water transport)
A lock is a device for raising and lowering boats between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water level can be varied; whereas in a caisson lock, a boat lift, or on a canal inclined plane, it is...

. Both the southern wall of the old asylum and the flight of locks have been designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument
Scheduled Ancient Monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a 'nationally important' archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorized change. The various pieces of legislation used for legally protecting heritage assets from damage and destruction are grouped under the term...

.

This meets the western boundary of Windmill Lane at the Three Bridges, which is also a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...

 and opened in 1859, it consists of a cast-iron trough carrying the Grand Union Canal over the Great Western Railway
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

 and a cast-iron bridge carrying the public highway Windmill Lane over the other two. So there are only two bridges.

Today the building also serves as the head offices of the West London Mental Health NHS Trust (WLMHT). WLMHT also run Broadmoor High Secure Hospital
Broadmoor Hospital
Broadmoor Hospital is a high-security psychiatric hospital at Crowthorne in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It is the best known of the three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, the other two being Ashworth and Rampton...

 in Crowthorne
Crowthorne
Crowthorne is also a suburb of Johannesburg, South AfricaCrowthorne is a village and civil parish in the Bracknell Forest district of south-eastern Berkshire. It has a population of 6,711...

, Berkshire. Although the on-site facilities have been reduced from what was once the world's largest asylum, it is still used for treatment of and research into serious mental distress. A prior trust created the London West Mental Health R&D Consortium which also has its administrative base there. There is now a complex of other buildings known as Ealing Hospital NHS Trust
Ealing Hospital
Ealing Hospital, officially called Ealing Hospital NHS Trust, is a general NHS hospital in the Southall district of the London Borough of Ealing, Greater London, England....

 built on the old asylum's recreational grounds and cycle track to the east. At the back of the main building are some disused wards that still belong to the Regional Health Authority.

The WLMHT currently act as guardians of the Corsellis Collection: some 9000 specimens of brains dating back to the 1950s: the largest known collection of its kind. This collection was started at Runwell Hospital
Runwell Hospital
Runwell Hospital was a hospital in Essex operated by South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust until its final closure on 23 April 2010. From February 2008 until its closure, Runwell Hospital provided solely forensic mental health services in line with the trust's reprovision programme...

 by Dr Corsellis, and was kept there until the 1990s.

Medical terms in this article, such as "feeble-minded", "idiot", "imbecile", "lunatic", reflect historical usage.

Early history

Several Acts of Parliament allowed the building of the Asylum, and statutes have driven the subsequent changes in mental health
Mental health
Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...

 care.
The following is a summary of the key legislation.

County Asylums Act 1808

The background to the creation of the asylum included the 1808 County Asylums Act which was passed after an expensive war against France. This recognised lunatics as being ill, as being held in the wrong institutions and perhaps having a chance to recover if given the right type of treatment. Non-recovery would mean that the insane pauper would always need to be looked after and would thus cost more in the long run. Moreover, some parishes were growing in population due to industrialisation, and the existing charitable institutions and workhouse
Workhouse
In England and Wales a workhouse, colloquially known as a spike, was a place where those unable to support themselves were offered accommodation and employment...

s could not cope with the increased demands on them. The recognition of insanity
Insanity
Insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including becoming a danger to themselves and others, though not all such acts are considered insanity...

 as an illness can almost be seen as a cost-saving measure rather than a humane one.

"Whereas the practice of confining such lunatic
Lunatic
"Lunatic" is a commonly used term for a person who is mentally ill, dangerous, foolish, unpredictable; a condition once called lunacy. The word derives from lunaticus meaning "of the moon" or "moonstruck".-Lunar hypothesis:...

s and other insane persons as are chargeable to their respective parishes in Gaols, Houses of Correction, Poor Houses and Houses of Industry, is highly dangerous and inconvenient"

Thus the 1808 Act was passed to empower county Justices of the Peace (JPs) to construct asylums financed out of the local rates
Rates (tax)
Rates are a type of property tax system in the United Kingdom, and in places with systems deriving from the British one, the proceeds of which are used to fund local government...

, which proved very unpopular. As JPs faced annual re-election they often met resistance to this policy. The cost of keeping lunatics in jails and workhouses had previously been charged to their parish of birth, and continued indefinitely as there was no attempt to cure the lunatics. To make matters worse, the Corn Laws kept food prices high while the Enclosure Act
Inclosure Act
The Inclosure or Enclosure Acts were a series of United Kingdom Acts of Parliament which enclosed open fields and common land in the country. They removed previously existing rights of local people to carry out activities in these areas, such as cultivation, cutting hay, grazing animals or using...

 of 1813 removed the right of poor people to use the common lands to support themselves, causing added mental distress to the already impoverished.

Decision to build asylum (1827)

Concern grew about the disproportionate number of lunatics in Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...

. The local judiciary
Judiciary
The judiciary is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in the name of the state. The judiciary also provides a mechanism for the resolution of disputes...

 (before whom the lunatics would have appeared charged with various offences or running amok) decided on 15 November 1827 to exercise their powers and build an asylum. In the following year Parliament recognised the barriers to asylum building and passed the 1828 Metropolitan Commissioners in Lunacy Act to ensure the 1808 Acts was enforced by giving JPs the powers to progress things more rapidly. (Norris & Alen)

The building (1829–1831)

Work on the new asylum at Hanwell
Hanwell
Hanwell is a town situated in the London Borough of Ealing in west London, between Ealing and Southall. The motto of Hanwell Urban District Council was Nec Aspera Terrent...

 started in 1829. Most of the land – 44 acres (178,061.8 m²) – was purchased from the Earl of Jersey
George Child-Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey
George Child Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey GCH, PC , styled Viscount Grandison until 1805, was a British courtier and Conservative politician.-Background and education:...

. The building contractor was William Cubitt, who completed the work to a tight budget of £64,000.
The architect was William Alderson, a Quaker. His neo-classical
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...

 design consisted of a central octagonal 'panopticon
Panopticon
The Panopticon is a type of building designed by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the late eighteenth century. The concept of the design is to allow an observer to observe all inmates of an institution without them being able to tell whether or not they are being watched...

' tower with a basement
Basement
__FORCETOC__A basement is one or more floors of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor. Basements are typically used as a utility space for a building where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, car park, and air-conditioning system...

 and two other floors. The windows are tall with semicircular bonded gauge brick arches at the top.
There were two wings of one basement and just one other floor in the form of a west-east corridor.
Both wings turn north, and each terminates at its own panopticon tower, which again has a basement and two floors; thus the overall building forms three sides of a square.
The east side of the central tower was intended for the male patients and the west for the females. With germ theory beginning to be developed around this time, spreading the wards out in this manner was thought to help reduce the spread of infections.

The design also reduced the need to build corridors and thus saved money, the wards themselves were long and thin with a corridor from one part of the asylum to another running through the ward itself. From the air the design is roughly symmetrical with services: kitchens; laundry; management; chapel and hall (used for parties, theatre and dances) all located in the middle with wards laid out to each side, male to the left of the entrance and female to the right. As mental illness is more prevalent in women than men, the right side of the hospital (the west at Hanwell) is always larger.

As Hanwell was the first purpose built asylum in England and Wales, this became the standard design for county asylums and was copied and modified by the designers of countless other asylums across England and Wales (the only other main alternative style being the villa or colony based style - Distinct buildings (comprising one or two wards) separated from each other by more than 20 metres of grass set in parkland, again the aim being to reduce the spread of infections). The one item that Hanwell did not possess was a gymnasium, in later designs this was often built under a first floor hall.

The central tower was adorned with a monumental clock procured from John Moore & Sons of 38–9 Clerkenwell Close, London. This was later moved to the Chapel tower – see the lithographic print below when the chapel was built. In November 1829 building work started again on the first extension, and there was further expansion in 1837, 1857 and 1879.

The extensions which were added in 1857–59 are readily identifiable, as they have flat bonded arches to the tops of the windows.

In 1999 part of the exterior of the building (those parts which were still in use and visible to the general public) were cleaned with a proprietary dilute hydrofluoric acid
Hydrofluoric acid
Hydrofluoric acid is a solution of hydrogen fluoride in water. It is a valued source of fluorine and is the precursor to numerous pharmaceuticals such as fluoxetine and diverse materials such as PTFE ....

 preparation, removing over 170 years of grime and soot to reveal the rough golden yellow colour of the bricks, which is characteristic of handmade 'London stocks'. One can still see original small cast iron ventilation
Ventilation (architecture)
Ventilating is the process of "changing" or replacing air in any space to provide high indoor air quality...

 grilles displaying the arms of the county of Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...

 with three Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...

 seax
Seax
Seax in Old English means knife or cutting tool. The name of the roofer's tool, the zax, is a development from this word...

es, thus indicating the asylum's original ownership.

Upon entering the building one is struck by the economy in the proportioning of space for a building of this period: it was not built as a grand residence or civic building but as a functional work space and home for the treatment of insane paupers. This unfortunately led to poor ventilation, and together with overcrowding may be the reason behind the high rates of TB
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

 before the age of antibiotic
Antibiotic
An antibacterial is a compound or substance that kills or slows down the growth of bacteria.The term is often used synonymously with the term antibiotic; today, however, with increased knowledge of the causative agents of various infectious diseases, antibiotic has come to denote a broader range of...

s.

This was made worse because the asylum filled up so quickly that basements were converted into sleeping dormitories and even a few extra wards, by excavating earth away from the basement walls and fitting windows. This worked quite well for much of the east side where the ground level is almost 5 metres lower than on the west due to the slope.

The main view most people see of the hospital is the elegantly proportioned gatehouse entrance which adjoins the Uxbridge Road. It takes the form of a neoclassical
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...

 half-circular arch, large and solid, over tall vertical barred, iron gates, which incorporate a small pedestrian gate with its own key lock. The harsh architecturally solid lines are softened somewhat by the vine creepers that envelop the upper parts. Surprisingly, it is built from pale grey Gault
Gault Clay
Gault is a clay formation of stiff blue clay deposited in a calm, fairly deep water marine environment during the Lower Cretaceous Period...

 bricks which are not only gauged but had to be expensively brought in from far away.

It also supports on the north side of the building a blue Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...

 Bench Mark; type: flush bracket; No. S1016. This point was measured to be 69.279 feet (21.116 m) above mean sea level.

Middlesex County Asylum at Hanwell 1831 – 1889

Under the administration of the local Committee of Visiting Justices of Middlesex County Council
Middlesex County Council
Middlesex County Council was the principal local government body in the administrative county of Middlesex from 1889 to 1965.The county council was created by the Local Government Act 1888, which also removed the most populous part of the county to constitute the County of London...

.

The asylum opened on 16 May 1831 by taking in twenty-four male patients and eighteen female patients.

Dr William & Mildred Ellis

The first superintendent was Dr William Charles Ellis
Sir William Charles Ellis
Sir William Charles Ellis was the superintendent of the West Riding Pauper Asylum.-Biography:He was born in Alford, Lincolnshire on 10 March 1780. His early career was as an apothecary but he soon took an interest in the treatment of mental disorders...

 (later knighted) presided together with his capable wife Mildred Ellis who held the post of matron
Matron
Matron is the job title of a very senior nurse in several countries, including the United Kingdom, its former colonies, including the Republic of Ireland, although the title Clinical Nurse Manager has become acceptable as an alternative.-History:...

, from the opening in 1831 until his resignation in 1838.

In this age of relative enlightenment it was found essential for recovery that the patients should get out into full daylight, take in fresh air and to walk about and exercise, so the ground floor wards had 'airing courts' which were shared by the other wards upstairs. These were pleasantly laid out areas with seating and bounded by walls or railings so patients could not wander off. When a patient had somewhat recovered their wits they were allowed to walk and work in the surrounding fields. The asylum had its own carpentry, bakery, brewery, dentistry, fire brigade, gasworks, laundry, shoemakers, smithy, tailors, farm, church and burial ground etc. (See diagram of the layout of the asylum). It was as self-sufficient as it could be. The asylum paid the canal company for taking water from the canal and had its own dock to receive barges. This was very convenient for receiving coal deliveries, which was used not only for heating but for producing gas for illumination.
Originally planned to house 450 patients with space for a further 150 its capacity was reduced back to 300 with space for another 150 due to fears of an outcry if the local rate increased too sharply. At first the number of paupers admitted was low due to the charge of nine shilling per week each, this being higher than the workhouses and jails, but by force of the law the asylum was full within six months and more space was badly needed. Therefore, in November of the same year work on building extensions began and so started the almost continuous process of rebuilding and improvements that go on in the present day.

Anatomy Act (1832)

The friends or relatives of a deceased patient were free to remove the remains for burial. Failing this, the deceased was interred in unmarked paupers' graves in the hospital's burial ground
Burial Ground
Burial Ground is the ninth studio album by Swedish death metal band Grave, released in June 2010.-Track listing:# "Liberation" - 3:40# "Semblance In Black" - 7:50# "Dismembered Mind" - 6:10# "Ridden With Belief" - 7:57# "Conquerer" - 4:44...

. With the 1832 Anatomy Act, the body was first kept in a building called the 'dead house', on the west side of the burial ground (see diagram above). If unclaimed after 72 hours it could be sold to a (licensed) anatomy
Anatomy
Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...

 school. The Act also provided for the donation of bodies. This Act followed the trial and conviction in 1828 of Burke and Hare, the body snatchers.

As autopsies on paupers did need require the coroner's permission, autopsies became common at the hospital. From 1845 the results of these autopsies were recorded in detail by Dr Hitchman.

John Conolly (1839)

John Conolly
John Conolly
John Conolly , English psychiatrist, was born at Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, of an Irish family. He spent four years as a lieutenant in the Cambridgeshire Militia and lived for a year in France before embarking on a medical career.He graduated with an MD degree at University of Edinburgh in 1821...

 took up residence as the third superintendent on 1 June 1839. In April 1839, Serjeant
Serjeant
Serjeant may be:*The holder of a serjeanty, a type of feudal land-holding in England*A generally obsolete spelling of Sergeant, although still used in some English regiments, and for Serjeant-at-Arms...

 Adams, one of the Visiting Justices of the asylum and a circuit judge who often visited Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

, the county of Conolly's birth, and a founding member and first chairman of Legal & General
Legal & General
Legal & General Group Plc , commonly known as Legal & General, is a multinational financial services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Its products include life insurance, general insurance, pensions and investments. It has operations in the United Kingdom, Egypt, France, Germany,...

, suggested that Conolly visit the Lincoln Asylum and see the system devised by Mr Robert Gardiner Hill
Robert Gardiner Hill
Robert Gardiner Hill MD was born in Louth, Lincoln, of parents engaged in trade. He is normally credited with being the first superintendent of a small asylum to develop a mode of treatment where by the reliance on mechanical restraint and coercion could be made obsolete altogether, a situation...

. He was so impressed by this that he decided to abolish mechanical restraints at Hanwell. This must have taken enormous powers of persuasion: the existing staff would have to change their work practices and learn how to nurse more effectively those patients with troubling behaviour. But the reform seemed to avoid the patient suffering further trauma
Psychological trauma
Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event...

 as a result of restraint and being made to feel totally helpless. Conolly succeeded in introducing the reform by 21 September 1839, less than 3 months after he took charge. This is perhaps a testament to the earlier work of Ellis.

Something of his success can be gauged from this extract from the first page of the 68th report of the Visiting Justices:

"The Visiting Justices have the satisfaction to find that every year, as the excellence of the non - restraint System becomes more generally recognized, affords fewer Materials in the Asylum for Comment or Report. For four years it has been the settled Rule of the House, that no harshness nor coercive cruelly should be used in any case, but that every patient, however violent, should be treated with uniform kindness and forbearance; and during that time such as been the undeviating success of this Plan, such as been the even tenor of it course, that it now presents no new fact nor features either to vindicate or explain. This is the more extraordinary, as it rarely happens that a Theory can be brought into practice without losing a Portion of its presumed Efficiency."

The Illustrated London News (1848)

Full page illustration and short article was published in The Illustrated London News on 15 January 1848 about how Twelfth Night was celebrated at the Hanwell Asylum.

The brewery closes (1888)

In 1888, the earlier 1879 Act of Parliament
Act of Parliament
An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...

 to facilitate the control and care of Habitual Drunkards
was made permanent (and the term 'Habitual Drunkard' changed to 'Inebriate'). As Hanwell would take in such patients for up to a year, this Act was seen as a reason to close the brewery.

London County Asylum, Hanwell 1889 – 1918

Under the administration of the London County Council
London County Council
London County Council was the principal local government body for the County of London, throughout its 1889–1965 existence, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today known as Inner London and was replaced by the Greater London Council...

.

Hilda Elizabeth Wolsey

on 11 June 1910 Nurse Hilda Elizabeth Wolsey followed a female patient who climbed one of the fire escapes and then along the guttering of the ward roof. She held on to the patient until help arrived and they could both be lowered to the safety of the ground. For this act of heroism she was awarded the Albert Medal
Albert Medal (lifesaving)
The Albert Medal for Lifesaving was a British medal awarded to recognise the saving of life. It has since been replaced by the George Cross.The Albert Medal was first instituted by a Royal Warrant on 7 March 1866 and discontinued in 1971 with the last two awards promulgated in the London Gazette of...

. (In 1971 surviving holders of the Albert Medal were invited to exchange their decoration for the more suitable George Cross
George Cross
The George Cross is the highest civil decoration of the United Kingdom, and also holds, or has held, that status in many of the other countries of the Commonwealth of Nations...

; which she did. Wolsey died on 11 March 1974 in Ealing
Ealing
Ealing is a suburban area of west London, England and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Ealing. It is located west of Charing Cross and around from the City of London. It is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically a rural village...

, west London.)

County Mental Hospital, Hanwell 1918 – 1937

Under the administration of the London County Council
London County Council
London County Council was the principal local government body for the County of London, throughout its 1889–1965 existence, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today known as Inner London and was replaced by the Greater London Council...

, was renamed the County Mental Hospital, Hanwell.

Taken in the first half of the 1920s this image shows that the nurses' home has still to be built in the top right corner of the frame. It has since been demolished. Further to the top right is the Iron Bridge
Iron Bridge
Iron Bridge may refer to:*The Iron Bridge, a pioneering Industrial Revolution bridge in Shropshire, England*Ironbridge, a settlement in Shropshire, England*Ironbridge Gorge, the gorge formed by the River Severn in Shropshire, England...

 at the junction of Uxbridge Road
Uxbridge Road
Uxbridge Road is the name of the A4020 road in London. It starts at Shepherd's Bush Green and goes west towards Uxbridge. It passes through Acton, Ealing Broadway and Hanwell....

 (A4020) and Windmill Lane (A4127) which runs south to the left of the frame. Running down the left-hand side is a section of the 'Flight of Locks' on the Grand Union Canal
Grand Union Canal
The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. Its main line connects London and Birmingham, stretching for 137 miles with 166 locks...

. For overhead aerial view of Hospital today take external link to Google Maps: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=w7+hanwell&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=16&ll=51.5072,-0.349213&spn=0.007199,0.021629&t=h&iwloc=A

Also, by the 1920s there were sufficient beds to ensure that no person too ill to keep within the laws of the land (or avoid getting misled by others into transgressing the law) need be sent to gaol. The prison population subsequently fell.

St Bernard's Hospital 1937–1980

Under the administration of the London County Council
London County Council
London County Council was the principal local government body for the County of London, throughout its 1889–1965 existence, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today known as Inner London and was replaced by the Greater London Council...

 until 1948 when responsibility was transferred to the new National Health Service
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...

 – North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board, which was reorganised to became the North West Thames Regional Health Authority with local power invested in the Ealing
Ealing
Ealing is a suburban area of west London, England and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Ealing. It is located west of Charing Cross and around from the City of London. It is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically a rural village...

 District Health Authority in 1974.

War years (1939–1945)

One ward of the hospital was used as the local Emergency Medical Services (EMS) centre, to treat war casualties.

Several bombs landed on the hospital and its grounds during the Second World War: it was close to two strategic targets: the AEC factory in Windmill Lane which built fighting vehicles and the Wharncliffe Viaduct
Wharncliffe Viaduct
The Wharncliffe Viaduct is a brick-built viaduct that carries the Great Western Main Line railway across the Brent Valley, between Hanwell and Southall, Ealing, UK, at an elevation of . The viaduct, built in 1836-7, was constructed for the opening of the Great Western Railway...

 which carried the Great Western Railway
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

 (GWR), a vital transport route. Some of the UXBs
Unexploded ordnance
Unexploded ordnance are explosive weapons that did not explode when they were employed and still pose a risk of detonation, potentially many decades after they were used or discarded.While "UXO" is widely and informally used, munitions and explosives of...

 fell into the soft sediment of the River Brent
River Brent
The Brent is a river within Greater London which is a tributary of the River Thames. It is 17.9 miles long, running north-east to south-west, and it joins the Thames on the Tideway at Brentford, Hounslow.- Hydronymy and etymology :...

, and some may still be there. However a V1
V-1 flying bomb
The V-1 flying bomb, also known as the Buzz Bomb or Doodlebug, was an early pulse-jet-powered predecessor of the cruise missile....

 hit the hospital laundry and caused many casualties. This event is mentioned in a personal account by Simon Tobitt in WW2 Peoples War. The Gatehouse also received some bomb damage.

Dr. Max Glatt (1958)

Dr. Max Meier Glatt, (born 26 January 1912; died 14 May 2002). One of the pioneer
Innovator
An innovator in a general sense, is a person or an organization who is one of the first to introduce into reality something better than before. That often opens up a new area for others and achieves an innovation.-History:...

s in the treatment of people with an addictive
Behavioral addiction
Behavioral addiction is a form of addiction which does not rely on drugs or alcohol. Increasingly referred to as process addiction or non-substance-related addiction ) behavioral addiction includes a compulsion to repeatedly engage in an action until said action causes serious negative consequences...

 personality trait. Appointed as a consultant in 1958 he set up an alcohol dependency unit in a female ward. Overcoming many managerial obstacles; his approach of creating a therapeutic community was found to be a great success. In 1962 this was moved and became a drug and alcohol dependence unit; now known as the Max Glatt Unit and situated in 'A' Block, and next to the Tony Hillis wing. Run currently by the Central North West London Mental Health NHS Trust; Substance Misuses Service

Psychiatric Unit 1980 – 1992

North West Thames Regional Health Authority via the Ealing District Health Authority

The local District Health Authority, following Government edict to close the smaller cottage hospital
Cottage Hospital
The original concept of a cottage hospital was a small rural hospital having up to 25 beds. One advantage of such a hospital in villages was the familiarity the local physician might have with their patient that may affect their treatment...

s and maternity units, and bring health services together on one multi-disciplinary site, changed the name of the grounds to 'Ealing Hospital
Ealing Hospital
Ealing Hospital, officially called Ealing Hospital NHS Trust, is a general NHS hospital in the Southall district of the London Borough of Ealing, Greater London, England....

.' However, the new nomenclature
Nomenclature
Nomenclature is a term that applies to either a list of names or terms, or to the system of principles, procedures and terms related to naming - which is the assigning of a word or phrase to a particular object or property...

 given to describe the new layout and various buildings was found to go against all natural intuition and so forced people to keep resorting to the name St. Bernard's Hospital to make it clear that they were referring to the psychiatric parts run by the WLMHT and 'Ealing Hospital' when referring to the District General Unit building – which is administrated by a totally separate public sector corporation or Trust. Even by 2006 the old name is often used in internal communications and in-house publications and some National Service web sites still give the address as St. Bernard's Hospital. This approach has proven an effective Coping mechanism against the Petronius syndrome. Likewise, its geographical attachment depends on context. For postal communications it is in Southall, for non clinical administration it is referred to as the 'Ealing site' and to the people to whom it serves it remains in Hanwell
Hanwell
Hanwell is a town situated in the London Borough of Ealing in west London, between Ealing and Southall. The motto of Hanwell Urban District Council was Nec Aspera Terrent...

.

St. Bernard's Hospital, 1992 to present day

Between 1980 and 1992 the site complex was referred to as 'Ealing Hospital' but it had no legal existence, it was just the site address.
Each medical unit reported straight to the Ealing District Health Authority and not to any board called Ealing Hospital.
After 12 years of being host to the Ealing District General Unit and for 4 years to the Ealing Maternity Unit (which opened in March 1988) the latter two amalgamated into a new hospital named Ealing Hospital (NHS) Trust and the Psychiatric unit regained its name of St. Bernard's Hospital once more. Ealing Hospital (NHS) Trust did not become fully autonomous immediately however, as for many years St Bernard's Hospital remained responsible for the other Hospital's site maintenance.

Three Bridges Regional Secure Unit – opened 1985

Run by the Forensic Directorate, this unit was named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...

's Three Bridges that lies only a few hundred feet away to the west.
One of the wards has been named after the rastafarian
Rastafari movement
The Rastafari movement or Rasta is a new religious movement that arose in the 1930s in Jamaica, which at the time was a country with a predominantly Christian culture where 98% of the people were the black descendants of slaves. Its adherents worship Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia , as God...

 dub poet
Dub poetry
Dub poetry is a form of performance poetry of West Indian origin, which evolved out of dub music consisting of spoken word over reggae rhythms in Jamaica in the 1970s....

 and mental health campaigner Benjamin Zephaniah
Benjamin Zephaniah
Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah is an English writer and dub poet. He is a well-known figure in contemporary English literature, and was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008....

. The Three Bridges RSU was originally built on the asylum burial ground, a rectangular area that was walled in by high walls on all four sides except for a gate a mortuary (labelled "dead house" in the 1850 floor plan, above) at the west end (even dying was not a good enough reason to be discharged for some). A build within these four walls made a good case for the units location, but a subsequent extension removed much of these walls.

West London Healthcare NHS Trust 1992 – 1999

West London Healthcare NHS Trust achieves 'Trust' status and becomes a public sector corporation.

24 July 1992

John Conolly Wing (JCW) opened. Incorporating the Adult Acute, Rehabilitation, and Elderly Mentally Ill (EMI) wards.
The ground floor also has a room each for Art and Music therapy, plus a dining area, whilst on the first floor is a Post room and on the north-eastern quadrant is the ECT
ECT
-Automotive:* Electronically controlled transmission, found in premium automobiles* Engine coolant temperature-Industry & Technology:* Eddy-current testing, a nondestructive testing technique for metal objects...

 suit, Phlebotomy
Phlebotomy
Phlebotomy is the process of making an incision in a vein.It is associated with the following concepts:* Venipuncture, the practice of collecting venous blood samples* The main practice of a phlebotomist, an individual trained to draw blood...

 and some administration offices. The first floor lobby is connected to the nearby general hospital to the north by an enclosed aerial corridor which spans an intervening service road. Supported upon slender concrete posts, it is some one hundred and twenty feet in length. The feature was inspired by the then government dictum that 'local psychiatric units should be an integral part of the district hospitals.' Policy had changed again by the time the new wing had been built and this corridor still remains locked being only used as a fire evacuation route from the upstairs floor of the JCW.

North West Thames Regional Health Authority abolished 1994

New authority: North Thames Region until 1996 and the Ealing District Health Authority is also abolished.

Replaced by NHS Strategic Health Authority (SHA): Ealing & Hammersmith & Hounslow (EHH) .

Major refurbishment (1998)

Started in February 1998 St. Bernard's main building undergoes a major refurbishment.
It costs in excess of four and a half million pounds sterling and takes about eight months. Finally the exterior brickwork gets cleaned and netting is strategically placed to deny the local Rock Pigeon
Rock Pigeon
The Rock Dove or Rock Pigeon, is a member of the bird family Columbidae . In common usage, this bird is often simply referred to as the "pigeon"....

s a roost.

Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham Mental Health NHS Trust 1999 – 2001

Ealing & Hammersmith & Hounslow Health Authority (EHH)

West London Mental Health NHS Trust 2001 – present

Ealing & Hammersmith & Hounslow Health Authority (EHH) until 2006

Existing Strategic Heath Authority amalgamated with other London SHA's to become The 'London SHA'.

Tony Hillis Wing (2001)

Named after the late Tony Hillis, OBE, RMN, RGN, Dip MS. Formerly the Deputy Director of Nursing on this site. He was a great supporter of patient involvement. He also took the position of being very much non-judgemental towards those he cared for. Opened 17 September 2001, this unit serves as the local medium secure. The catchment area consists of the London boroughs of:
  • Ealing
    London Borough of Ealing
    The London Borough of Ealing is a borough in west London.-Location:The London Borough of Ealing borders the London Borough of Hillingdon to the west, the London Borough of Harrow and the London Borough of Brent to the north, the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham to the east and the London...

    ,
  • Kensington Chelsea
    Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
    The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is a central London borough of Royal borough status. After the City of Westminster, it is the wealthiest borough in England....

  • Westminster
    City of Westminster
    The City of Westminster is a London borough occupying much of the central area of London, England, including most of the West End. It is located to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and its southern boundary...

  • Hillingdon
    London Borough of Hillingdon
    The London Borough of Hillingdon is the westernmost borough in Greater London, England. The borough's population was recorded as 243,006 in the 2001 Census. The borough incorporates the former districts of Ruislip-Northwood, Uxbridge, Hayes and Harlington and Yiewsley and West Drayton in the...

  • Brent
    London Borough of Brent
    In 1801, the civil parishes that form the modern borough had a total population of 2,022. This rose slowly throughout the 19th century, as the district became built up; reaching 5,646 in the middle of the century. When the railways arrived the rate of population growth increased...

  • Harrow
    London Borough of Harrow
    The London Borough of Harrow is a London borough of north-west London. It borders Hertfordshire to the north and other London boroughs: Hillingdon to the west, Ealing to the south, Brent to the south-east and Barnet to the east.-History:...

  • Barnet
    London Borough of Barnet
    The London Borough of Barnet is a London borough in North London and forms part of Outer London. It has a population of 331,500 and covers . It borders Hertfordshire to the north and five other London boroughs: Harrow and Brent to the west, Camden and Haringey to the south-east and Enfield to the...


plus the counties of:
  • West Hertfordshire,
  • East Hertfordshire
    East Hertfordshire
    East Hertfordshire is a local government district in Hertfordshire, England. Its council has offices in Bishop's Stortford and Hertford ....

  • North Hertfordshire
    North Hertfordshire
    North Hertfordshire is a local government district in Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Letchworth.The district was formed on 1 April 1974 by the amalgamation of the urban districts of Baldock, Hitchin, Letchworth, and Royston and the Hitchin Rural District.From eastward clockwise,...

  • Bedfordshire
    Bedfordshire
    Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....

    .

Wells unit (2006)

Wells is a new medium secure unit opened in June 2006. It has been designed to accommodate up to ten adolescents between the ages of 12 to 18 years. Statutory education is provided to those still of school age and other educational pursuits are offered.

It is named after an artesian well to the west of the site in an area now called the Orchard Centre. The application for Planning Permission
Planning permission
Planning permission or planning consent is the permission required in the United Kingdom in order to be allowed to build on land, or change the use of land or buildings. Within the UK the occupier of any land or building will need title to that land or building , but will also need "planning...

 for the Orchard had to be resubmitted in order that it could be built further south to avoid chance of damage due to possible future subsidence. This is quite apart from it being considered a wonderful example of fine Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 engineering of significant archeological interest and thus worthy of preservation.

Here is a description of it published in 1854:

The asylum is supplied with water from an artesian well, which is considered to be the best in the kingdom. The shaft, to a depth of 31 ft (9.4 m)., is 10 ft (3 m). in diameter, and thence to a further depth of 209 ft (63.7 m)., 6 ft (1.8 m). in diameter, together, 240 ft (73.2 m).; the whole of which is constructed of brickwork in cement. The boring was commenced at the bottom of the shaft, with pipes of 14 in. Internal diameter; these are carried down about 50 ft (15.2 m)., into the stratum of flint stones overlaying the chalk formation, making the whole depth from the surface about 290 ft (88.4 m)., whence the water rises into a tank, 20 ft (6.1 m). above the ground-floor of the asylum, without the aid of pumps, at the ratio of 90,000 gallons per diem.

In passing: This source of water is still considered economically viable today: Only just back in September 2002, Brixton PLC applied for water extraction license from the Environment Agency
Environment Agency
The Environment Agency is a British non-departmental public body of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and an Assembly Government Sponsored Body of the Welsh Assembly Government that serves England and Wales.-Purpose:...

in Hatfield
Hatfield, Hertfordshire
Hatfield is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England in the borough of Welwyn Hatfield. It has a population of 29,616, and is of Saxon origin. Hatfield House, the home of the Marquess of Salisbury, is the nucleus of the old town...

 for its site on the opposite side of the hospital's boundary with Windmill Lane.

The Orchard Centre (2007)

Opened on 21 August 2007 the Orchard Centre is a 60 bed medium secure psychiatric unit for women.

Although there has been some new building on the St. Bernard site over the years, this may be the most significant addition since the end of the rapid expansion of the hospital back in the 19th century.

Of the 60 beds total, 15 are standard medium secure and 45 'enhanced' medium secure (WEMSS) (30 of these are for women from London and 15 beds for the south east of England), making it the largest unit of its type in the UK.
It is solely for women, with emphasis on the environment and therapy being gender-sensitive. This will be especially useful for patients who have suffered long periods of trauma as children and as a consequence, have been unable to go on to integrate normally with other people as adults. Victims can repeatedly come to the attention of other areas of the health service as the frustration and anger they feel at this isolation, express itself as suicide, self-harm or aggression and other types of challenging behaviour. Also, there is a tendency or drive to seek some respite and shut off these feelings. This is often by self-medicating with drink and drugs. Such activities may have brought them to the attention of the law courts frequently. The new unit provides both a safe physical and emotional space, in which they can discover normal responses. The 24/7 enhanced nature of the service also promises to give a chance for new and more beneficial behaviour to be discovered and explored, and to practice these new ways of interacting with other people until it becomes established in a variety of every day situations (which the design of the building and intensive therapy endeavour to provide). There is some good evidence to suggest that this significantly reduces the chances of re-offending once discharged from hospital and the staff will be aiding further research to improve outcomes still further.

Raison d' être

As a participating member at the Fourth World Conference on Women
Fourth World Conference on Women
The United Nations convened the Fourth World Conference on Women: Action for Equality, Development and Peace on 4-15 September 1995 in Beijing, China. 189 governments and more than 5,000 representatives from 2,100 non-governmental organizations participated in the Conference...

, the United Kingdom ( represented by Baroness Chalker
Lynda Chalker
Lynda Chalker, Baroness Chalker of Wallasey PC is a British Conservative politician who was Member of Parliament for Wallasey from 1974 to 1992...

 ) signed up to the Beijing Declaration.

In response the Department of Health conducted a consultation and found that women experiencing mental health
Mental health
Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...

 problems were poorly catered for.
This led to new guidelines being drawn up and published.
Part of this guidance called for women who suffer mental problems, and for whom only medium secure accommodation was needed, to be treated in way that was sympathetic with their gender.

The WLMHT found itself in an almost unique position in both location, facilities and experience, together with a close working relationship with the London West Mental Health R&D Consortium. All this enabled it to construct a successful business case for a purpose for a medium secure women only unit to be built on the St Bernard's site. The proposal, also overcame some long-standing administrative, funding and legal duty problems between regional health authority and the trust that surrounded the maintenance of some of the 'listed' historic structures of the old hospital.

The building

To meet this end, the design details and layout of the unit has been thoroughly researched to provided those features which are hoped will aid recovery to sustainable health. This work was undertaken by Tuke Manton Architects LLP of Clapham. This was undertaken in partnership with Kier Group PLC, who were chosen by the West London Mental Health Trust to be the building contractors.

Care has been taken to avoid both ligature points (beams, banisters, door knobs, hooks, shower curtain rails, etc.,) and 'blind spots' where suicide and other self-harm can happen without the knowledge of the staff. Trouble has been taken to give the décor and layout more of a domestic quality rather than normal, bland, utility austere, clinical, NHS look.
All the facilities needed are contained within its perimeter so there is no need to use other parts of the hospital site unless it's to help with social re-integration.

To avoid the exterior of the building from looking like one monolith
Monolith
A monolith is a geological feature such as a mountain, consisting of a single massive stone or rock, or a single piece of rock placed as, or within, a monument...

ic block, it has been designed as two square units of equal size and a total of 263 ft (80.2 m) wide in the east-west axis, with the west block offset by some 23 ft (7 m) and the two joined by an atrium
Atrium (architecture)
In modern architecture, an atrium is a large open space, often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, often situated within a larger multistory building and often located immediately beyond the main entrance doors...

. Sporting a glazed roof, the atrium also serves as the main way into the building. Apart from through the glazed atrium, more light can ingress by way of a courtyard in the centre of each of the two units. Both blocks measure from front to back some 148 ft (45.1 m).
Imaginative design alteration to the interior layout (brought about by council planning committee consultations) and sinking the ground floor has reduced the total high by 5 ft (1.5 m). This bring the building proportions more into line with those around it and preserves the well known scenic view along the Hanwell Fight of Locks. Yellow bricks have been chosen for the exterior walls, which harmonize with the golden yellow handmade stocks of the Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 buildings to the north and east. Large saplings have been planted to provide an instant screen, which also soften the overall effect, all combining to help this new facility to take its place in the existing landscape – unlike the grey concrete carbuncle
Carbuncle
A carbuncle is an abscess larger than a boil, usually with one or more openings draining pus onto the skin. It is usually caused by bacterial infection, most commonly Staphylococcus aureus. The infection is contagious and may spread to other areas of the body or other people...

s of the 1960s.
Also adding character to the surrounding hard landscaping is a freshly renovated Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 canopy or shelter (a listed Grade II structure). The canopy has shallow pitch, formed by radial timbered spares going out to twelve wooden fascia
Fascia
A fascia is a layer of fibrous tissue that permeates the human body. A fascia is a connective tissue that surrounds muscles, groups of muscles, blood vessels, and nerves, binding those structures together in much the same manner as plastic wrap can be used to hold the contents of sandwiches...

 boards secured from behind by an iron ring. The ring is supported by twelve round and ornate cast-iron columns, with another column at its centre. It was at one time just one of many around the hospital. Erected in the airing courts, their purpose was to keep rain off of wooden seating. It was acknowledged, even back then, that fresh air and light is essential for the well-being of patients. Moreover, staying outside helped discourage the spread of the white plague
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

 caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a pathogenic bacterial species in the genus Mycobacterium and the causative agent of most cases of tuberculosis . First discovered in 1882 by Robert Koch, M...

, which was unfortunately only too common when the wards became overcrowded.
When the NHS took over running the mental hospital
Mental Hospital
Mental hospital may refer to:*Psychiatric hospital*hospital in Nepal named Mental Hospital...

s, they started to do away with these airing courts, and so the seating was no longer maintained. For a short time it had a chicken wire
Chicken wire
Chicken wire, or poultry netting, is a mesh of wire commonly used to fence poultry livestock. It is made of thin, flexible galvanized wire, with hexagonal gaps...

d frame constructed within it, in which was kept some budgerigar
Budgerigar
The Budgerigar , also known as Common Pet Parakeet or Shell Parakeet informally nicknamed the budgie, is a small, long-tailed, seed-eating parrot, and the only species in the Australian genus Melopsittacus...

s until about 1982. As the number of beds shrank, this part of the hospital and its aviary
Aviary
An aviary is a large enclosure for confining birds. Unlike cages, aviaries allow birds a larger living space where they can fly; hence, aviaries are also sometimes known as flight cages...

 became abandoned. Today, whilst the rust and guano
Guano
Guano is the excrement of seabirds, cave dwelling bats, and seals. Guano manure is an effective fertilizer due to its high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen and also its lack of odor. It was an important source of nitrates for gunpowder...

 have successfully been all removed, the name 'aviary' still sticks to it. The original finish was white oil paint, but under the NHS, almost all the ironwork
Ironwork
Ironwork is any weapon, artwork, utensil or architectural feature made of iron especially used for decoration. There are two main types of ironwork wrought iron and cast iron. While the use of iron dates as far back as 4000BC, it was the Hittites who first knew how to extract it and develop weapons...

 in the hospital has now been painted black. Security lighting, in the form of round flat lozenge
Lozenge
A lozenge , often referred to as a diamond, is a form of rhombus. The definition of lozenge is not strictly fixed, and it is sometimes used simply as a synonym for rhombus. Most often, though, lozenge refers to a thin rhombus—a rhombus with acute angles of 45°...

-shaped luminars have been unobtrusively fitted to the underside of the canopy. It now provides shelter to a staff bicycle rack.

The planning

As the Orchard Centre is a completely new purpose built structure, it had to be subjected to a full public consultation process.
There was some opposition, mainly from a mid-1990s housing estate which boarders the west edge of the new site, together with concerns regarding environmental pollution being released during the site clearance stage. During the consultation: it was argued that the unit's planned for height above ground, would unduly impose upon the view along the Hanwell
Hanwell
Hanwell is a town situated in the London Borough of Ealing in west London, between Ealing and Southall. The motto of Hanwell Urban District Council was Nec Aspera Terrent...

 flight of locks. This is a renowned scenic view. Others felt unhappy that it would also allow the patients to see over the perimeter wall and observe people on the outside. To meet both these objections the foundation was lowered to reduces the overall height and planning permission re-applied for. Planning permission
Planning permission
Planning permission or planning consent is the permission required in the United Kingdom in order to be allowed to build on land, or change the use of land or buildings. Within the UK the occupier of any land or building will need title to that land or building , but will also need "planning...

 was finally granted on 28 September 2005 but not before police removed some protesters from the public gallery.

The development of the new site as a whole required some of the existing Grade II structure of the hospital to be demolished. This was allowed on the account that these parts were not of significant architectural or historical interest to justify preserving. However, the south boundary wall (a registered ancient monument) had to undergo some renovation work to make it sound again. The old artesian well (referred to as an underground reservoir) however, was considered an important Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 artifact
Cultural artifact
A cultural artifact is a term used in the social sciences, particularly anthropology, ethnology, and sociology for anything created by humans which gives information about the culture of its creator and users...

 and thus left intact. This required the foundations of the new unit to be built a little further to the south than originally intended.
The Horticulture Therapy Centre which took up one quarter of the developed area also had to be relocated to the far south east corner of the main grounds.

Demolished too, was the boiler facility and storage tanks for the thick tarry 'heavy heating oil' which provided all the hot water for both St. Bernard's Hospital and Ealing Hospital
Ealing Hospital
Ealing Hospital, officially called Ealing Hospital NHS Trust, is a general NHS hospital in the Southall district of the London Borough of Ealing, Greater London, England....

. To this end, portable natural gas boiler units had to first be placed in the Maternity
Maternity
Maternity or motherhood is the social and legal acknowledgment of the parental relationship between a mother and her child.It is specially related with the protection of the baby and the mother within and after the childbirth.-See also:...

 car parking area and plumbed in to the existing heating system as a makeshift temporary solution, so avoiding delays to the main development. This led to even more pressure on the car parking space already lost to the building program. Therefore, all staff parking is now, by fee-paid permit only. This lead back in May 2007, to the introduction (by the two principle health Trusts on the site) of a bus shuttle service that visits the local train stations to encourage commuting by public transport. Moreover, one of the stipulations, made in the granting of the planning application was that parking would further be reduced on site. Overall, the number of cycle racks have been quadrupled to further encourage 'green travel'.

Despite the afore said issues arising, the building's completion, together with the new service road and landscaping, only slipped from the tentative finish date of March, made at the very start of the project to June.

Film and Television

The hospital buildings have been used on many occasions as a film or television location due to the proximity to several TV and film studios, Victorian prison like architecture, lots of external nooks and crannies and during the 1980s and 1990s plenty of empty ward space. Closed down wards became film locations as nightclubs (J block), hairdressers (H block) and free-French army barracks (an F block dining room).

The ITV 1970s TV series The Professionals
The Professionals (TV series)
The Professionals was a British crime-action television drama series produced by Avengers Mk1 Productions and London Weekend Television that aired on the ITV network from 1977 to 1983. In all, 57 episodes were produced, filmed between 1977 and 1981. It starred Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins and Gordon...

 filmed both outside and inside, most notably in one episode when a car is driven at speed towards the asylum main entrance followed by both main characters running down the white spiral staircase of the central tower into the basement below. At least one other episode uses a ward as a location where the three main characters visit a person supposedly in a general hospital ward.

The BBC 1970s TV series "Porridge
Porridge (TV series)
Porridge is a British situation comedy broadcast on BBC1 from 1974 to 1977, running for three series, two Christmas specials and a feature film. Written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, it stars Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale as two inmates at the fictional HMP Slade in Cumberland...

" starring Ronnie Barker
Ronnie Barker
Ronald William George "Ronnie" Barker, OBE was a British actor, comedian, writer, critic, broadcaster and businessman...

 used the outside courtyard of the buildings near the old pharmacy (later porters lodge) for outside shots of the prison in several episodes, these being used because the pharmacy windows had vertical bars on them, resembling a prison.

Some scenes of the 1989 Batman
Batman (1989 film)
Batman is a 1989 superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name, directed by Tim Burton. The film stars Michael Keaton in the title role, as well as Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl and Jack Palance...

 film starring (amongst others) Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times, and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for One Flew Over the...

 as the Joker, were also filmed in empty wards at Hanwell (using K block). This went down especially well with the staff as an earlier film of Jack's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (film)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a 1975 American drama film directed by Miloš Forman and based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Ken Kesey....

 (1975) set in an American psychiatric hospital, was at that time a favourite.

Some scenes of Stephen Poliakoff
Stephen Poliakoff
Stephen Poliakoff, CBE, FRSL is an acclaimed British playwright, director and scriptwriter, widely judged amongst Britain's foremost television dramatists.-Early life and career:...

's film She's Been Away
She's Been Away
She's Been Away is a 1989 British television play by Stephen Poliakoff and directed by Sir Peter Hall. In her final appearance it starred Dame Peggy Ashcroft, who won two awards at the Venice International Film Festival for her performance, as did Geraldine James.Poliakoff and Hall present an...

 (1989). Dame Peggy Ashcroft starred as Lillian Huckle; a woman who was institutionalized 60 years before whilst still a young girl, simply because she did not conform to social norms.

In the film The Bargee
The Bargee
The Bargee is a 1964 British comedy film directed by Duncan Wood, and starring Harry H. Corbett, Hugh Griffith, Eric Sykes and Ronnie Barker. The screenplay was written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.-Plot:...

 (directed by Duncan Wood
Duncan Wood
Duncan Wood was a British comedy producer, director and writer. His best known achievements were to produce all of Tony Hancock's Half Hours for BBC TV during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and later, also with Hancock's former writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, the classic British sitcom...

 1963) which starred Harry H. Corbett
Harry H. Corbett
Harry H. Corbett OBE was an English actor.Corbett was best known for his starring role in the popular and long-running BBC Television sitcom Steptoe and Son in the 1960s and 70s...

, Ronnie Barker
Ronnie Barker
Ronald William George "Ronnie" Barker, OBE was a British actor, comedian, writer, critic, broadcaster and businessman...

, Hugh Griffith
Hugh Griffith
Hugh Emrys Griffith was a Welsh film, stage and television actor.-Early life:Griffith was born in Marianglas, Anglesey, Wales, the son of Mary and William Griffith. He was educated at Llangefni County School and attempted to gain entrance to university, but failed the English examination...

 and Eric Sykes
Eric Sykes
Eric Sykes, CBE is an English radio, television and film writer, actor and director whose performing career has spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and/or performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Peter...

, the two bargees descend the flight of locks with the Hospital in the background.

The hospital could be seen in the background as Adam Hart-Davis
Adam Hart-Davis
Adam John Hart-Davis is an English scientist, author, photographer, historian and broadcaster, well-known in the UK for presenting the BBC television series Local Heroes and What the Romans Did for Us, the latter spawning several spin-off series involving the Victorians, the Tudors, the Stuarts,...

  explained how the locks and side ponds of the Hanwell-fight-of-locks operated.

In literature or prose

...my eye caught an omnibus on which was written "Hanwell."

Men deny hell, but not, as yet, Hanwell.

G. K. Chesterton
G. K. Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....

, in Orthodoxy
Orthodoxy (book)
Orthodoxy is a book by G. K. Chesterton that has become a classic of Christian apologetics. Chesterton considered this book a companion to his other work, Heretics...

 was inspired to ask: Who really should be considered mad?

It is also referenced in Lord Dunsany's story, "The Coronation of Mr. Thomas Shap."

Theatre

Hanwell Insane Asylum was mentioned in George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...

's 1914 play "Pygmalion
Pygmalion (play)
Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts is a play by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of...

". Phonetics
Phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech, or—in the case of sign languages—the equivalent aspects of sign. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds or signs : their physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory...

 Professor Henry Higgins
Henry Higgins
Henry Higgins may refer to:*The fictional character: see Pygmalion or My Fair Lady*The Australian politician and judge H. B. Higgins* Henry Higgins -See also:*Harry Higgins, English cricketer*Henry Huggins, fictional character...

 after successfully telling strangers where they were born by their accent, was jokingly told he came from Hanwell Insane Asylum.

Museum

Reverend H A Norris, (a former chaplain to the hospital) realized in the early 1980s that there were old records at hospital which were historically important and should join the others in the Greater London Council
Greater London Council
The Greater London Council was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council which had covered a much smaller area...

 Records Library (now part of the National Archives). He feared these would be thrown out by staff, and volunteers formed the 'Museum Committee' to help. They recovered much of the hospital heritage. This also included mechanical restraints, ECT
ECT
-Automotive:* Electronically controlled transmission, found in premium automobiles* Engine coolant temperature-Industry & Technology:* Eddy-current testing, a nondestructive testing technique for metal objects...

 machines, and some of the old fixtures and fittings. The largest item by far was the last original 'seclusion room' with white stained leather-covered straw padding walls and floor, this was recovered from June Ward in J block.

Also on display was a letter written by Arthur O'Connor. He had been committed to Hanwell on 6 May 1875 for firing an unloaded pistol at Queen Victoria earlier on 29 February. The purpose of writing was to petition for his release; which was granted on 16 November 1876. He never came to the attention of the authorities again.

The collection has now been dispersed to, and can be seen at:
  • Bethlem Royal Hospital
    Bethlem Royal Hospital
    The Bethlem Royal Hospital is a psychiatric hospital located in London, United Kingdom and part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Although no longer based at its original location, it is recognised as the world's first and oldest institution to specialise in mental illnesses....

     Museum. http://www.bethlemheritage.org.uk/acquisitionpolicy.html
  • London Metropolitan Archives
    London Metropolitan Archives
    The London Metropolitan Archives are the main archives for the Greater London area. Established in 1997, having previously been known as the Greater London Record Office, they are financed by the City of London Corporation....

  • Wellcome Trust
    Wellcome Trust
    The Wellcome Trust was established in 1936 as an independent charity funding research to improve human and animal health. With an endowment of around £13.9 billion, it is the United Kingdom's largest non-governmental source of funds for biomedical research...

  • Gunnersbury Park
    Gunnersbury Park
    Gunnersbury Park is a park in the Brentford ward of the London Borough of Hounslow, in west London, England. Purchased for the nation from the Rothschild family, it was opened to the public by Neville Chamberlain, then Minister of Health, on 21 May 1926...

    Museum. http://www.wlmeg.org/gunnersbury.php

External links





  • Martineau, Harriet The Hanwell Lunatic Asylum Description of the Ellis system; published in Tait's Edinburgh Magazine. June 1834 Roberts, Andrew (1981)The asylums index. Middlesex University, London, England. Retrieved on 7 October 2006
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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