The Patients of Chiswick House Asylum

Speaking with Shadows

If you’ve heard the horror stories of experimental pre-20th-century psychiatry, this episode might surprise you.

Josie Long heads to Chiswick House in south-west London to find out about its life as a private asylum for people with mental illnesses in the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

Who were the people who needed the asylum’s care, and what insight does its story give us into attitudes to mental health not much more than a century ago?

Dr Jeremy Ashbee tells Josie about the Tuke family of psychiatrists and their humane methods, and Rosie May delves into the casebooks of the well-to-do patients, to piece together a few of their stories.

Dr Sarah Chaney, an asylums historian and Research Fellow at Queen Mary University of London, explains the different kinds of private and public care available to those experiencing mental health issues in this period.

Chiswick House and Gardens Trust still works with local communities to promote wellbeing today, and Josie finds out more about projects in the gardens with Harvinder Kaur Bahra, Community Participation Manager.

Then Josie heads to Bethlem Museum of the Mind in Kent to meet Archivist David Luck for insights into the public asylum that gave ‘bedlam’ its meaning.

Speaking with Shadows is an English Heritage podcast.

You can find out more on these stories by going to www.english-heritage.org.uk/speakingwithshadows or head to the English Heritage website to find out how you can visit Chiswick House and Gardens.

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