Bedlam

Bedlam (now officially written Bethlem), the London lunatic asylum, originally founded in 1247 as a priory at Bishopsgate, its mother-church being St Mary's of Bethlehem (or Bedleem in Wyclif's spelling). It is spoken of as a hospital for lunatics in 1472, and as such it was granted at the dissolution to the mayor and citizens of London, being incorporated as a royal foundation in 1547. In 1676 it was transferred to Moorfields, and in 1815 to St George's Fields, Lambeth. This the present hospital was extended in 1838; but when Broadmoor was built in 1863, the criminal wings were pulled down, so that it now accommodates 300 patients. In the old Moorfields days, the management of Bedlam was deplorable. The patients were exhibited to the public, like wild beasts, as we see in Hogarth's picture, and read in Pepys and Boswell; whilst partial convalescents, with badges on their arms, were turned out to wander and beg in the streets. Edgar, in King Lear, personates one of these 'Tom-o'-Bedlams.' This practice, however, would seem to have been stopped by 1675.