3-008-395 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Winter entertainments at St. Luke's Hospital for Lunatics, [Old Street, London]: vocal and instrumental concert on Wednesday week, 1862. Concert '...for the amusement and recreation of the patients. The room is long and lofty...There are two recesses in its length which contain large windows, looking into the courtyard in front of the building, and which, in accordance with the plan of the building, break the monotony of a long wall, and afford excellent spaces in the rooms occupied by the patients for the placing of musical instruments, bagatelle-boards, worktables, &c. In the concert-room one of these recesses is occupied by benches, in which the female patients chiefly sit, although care is taken not to segregate the inmates wholly from the visitors who attend on these occasions...At the extreme end of the room is a platform, slightly raised, on which the lecturers, musical performers, or singers, as the case may be, appear; and it is backed by a well-painted scene, something on the plan of the drop scene at a theatre...the room is profusely decorated with evergreens, artificial flowers, and ribbons; and, when lighted up, it presents not only a cheerful but a gay, and indeed brilliant, appearance'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.