2-699-462 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'A Ward in Bethlehem Hospital', (c1878). Interior of the Bethlem Royal Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in London dating back to the 13th century. This Victorian view shows a clean and well-lit ward, with patients playing chess, reading newspapers and playing with a dog. A very different regime from earlier times when distressed patients were kept chained up and put on show for the entertainment of visitors, the origin of the term 'bedlam' (a corruption of Bethlehem). From Old and New London: A Narrative of Its History, Its People, And Its Places. The Southern Suburbs, Volume VI, by Edward Walford. [Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co., London, Paris & New York, c1878]