Product Description

Dreaded and reviled by many, these nineteenth-century buildings provide a unique window on how the Victorians housed and treated the mentally ill. Despite initially good intentions, they became warehouses for society's outcasts at a time when cures were rare. Isolated, hidden in the countryside and surrounded by high walls, most have been closed since the 1980s, their original use largely forgotten. In "The Victorian Asylum", Sarah Rutherford gives an insight into their history, their often imposing architecture and their later decline and brings to life these haunting buildings, some of which still survive today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #114303 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 56 pages

Customer Reviews

A Well Presented Little Booklet
This is a well presented booklet with many black and white and colour illustrations. As always with this series it leaves you wanting to know more about the subject. The author charts the building boom of asylums during the 19th century and the massive increase in the number of patients held within these new institutions. Building styles, life in an asylum and specialist asylums such as Broadmoor are briefly covered together with the demise and subsequent demolition of many of these excellent buildings in the 1980s and 1990s. I would have liked reference to a greater number of institutions, the same few tend to be often cited. A good bibliography and list of places to visit are provided.

asylums
I found this little book really interesting. Just enough information, pithy & to the point. It's inspired me to go & find out more.