The Hanwell Asylum, aka the Middlesex County Asylum, is probably better known – if at all – as St Bernard’s. For some reason, I thought it was long-closed, like the Holloway sanitorium in Virginia Water. Or at least moved away like the Bethlem Hospital (“Bedlam”) in Lambeth, now the Imperial War Museum.
Not a bit of it. While out and about yesterday, we popped in to where we knew it to be, mainly to see – out of curiosity – what buildings remained. We quickly discovered two things: first, St Bernard’s Hospital, part of West London NHS Mental Health Trust is very much active. There were small numbers of patients hanging around on garden benches and wandering about. Some kept each other company. Quite a few were smoking. Is it safe to assume that even these poor souls are further tortured by anti-smoking? Second, many of the old buildings, particularly to the east (ie to the left in the above illustration) are very much extant, along with rather nondescript modern two-storey apartment blocks. While the old Holloway and Bedlam buildings are beautiful – uplifting even – overall St Bernard’s is decidedly grim and oppressive.
The complex is fronted street-side (the very busy, dual-carriageway Uxbridge Road), by an imposing, ivy-bewigged, arched gatehouse, unoccupied by an employed keeper for many years, by the looks of it. A long driveway leads to the chapel. One can imagine wagons of supplies rolling up here having collected them from the nearby GWR siding, opened a handful of years after the asylum itself which came into being in 1831.
This was very much the mid -19C time when the authorities undertook a determined policy of shifting prisons, asylums, workhouses and cemeteries to the outskirts. London was expanding at its fastest pace before or since: no room for criminals, the poor, the dead or the mad.
Not quite Victorian, then, strictly speaking by year of foundation, but very much so in many other ways, not least in our imaginations.
Wikipedia has a good historical description of this rather desolate Victorian survival.
Very good article from Illustrated London News in 1843, republished on Victorian London web site.
The correct word is ‘patient’. Not too difficult surely. Many people will experience psychiatric illness either themselves or through a close family member and the reference to ‘inmates’ is unhelpful.
When it opened St Bernards represented a new and more enlightened approach to psychiatry – not difficult really compared to what went before.
As a local resident, I would suggest that rather than looking at the hospital from the Uxbridge Road, you take a walk along the canal which runs behind the hospital. Also a great chance to look at the magnificent flight of seven locks at Hanwell
Thanks for putting me straight, Anna, happy to edit on this occasion. Thanks also for the tip on local walking, we’ll give it a go – Hanwell is a very interesting area. I was talking to a local person about an hour ago who says he thinks the Trust have plans to demolish the remaining old buildings (presumably not the chapel, though).
Fascinating. My partner remembers it well. He performed at an entertainment there in about 1960. The routine he performed was the Peter sellers/Sophia Loren Goodneess Gracious song. Afterwards many of he patients followed him round, believing him to be a real doctor.
It is interesting that prison building theory was seen as relevant to an asylum. Or any sort of hospital, for that matter. Perhaps the serious gatehouse suggests that security was their top priority!
This is a bit guessy on my part, but the design would suggest so. The model prison for this sort of thing was Millbank Penitentiary (now the site of Tate Britain), built only 15 years previously, following Bentham. The builder of Hanwell was one William Cubitt. Infuriatingly there were two men in the profession of this name at this time, and I haven’t figured out which as yet.
Hanwell actually demonstrates what can be termed as ‘moral architecture’, as was laid out by reformers such as the Tuke’s at the York Retreat. It bears little resemblance to the Panoptian architectural forms of Bentham, which are far more penitentiary in design.
Good evening,
I am sorry this is not really in the vein of which you have been discussing. My name is Martin Kennedy and my mother Margueritte Cunningham died in the hospital in 1978. I never knew her and have never met her so i am very interested to find out more about her last days alive. Does anybody know the best way to obtain records etc of patients
Kindest regards
Martin
Hello, Martin. Highly unlikely that records of this type would be in the public domain, especially being relatively recent, historically. I’d start by contacting the hospital administration and see what they say. Good luck.
Many thanks Mike,
I will try that route
Martin
Hello Martin, my great uncle died in the hospital in 1956. I would recommend contacting the City of London Metropolitan Archives who hold the archives for the hospital. Be warned though, they may not come up with much information – all patient records for my great uncle had been lost or destroyed and the only paperwork they could find on him was a record of him being admitted, a record on when he died, and a record of his funeral. Very sad that as a family we could not find out what happened to him during his time there.
Best of luck – I hope your search proves more fruitful!
Many thanks Nicki,
Martin
A distant relative was a nurse there in 1841 when it was called Middlesex Pauper Lunatic Asylum. I would like to know if the staff records exist so I can confirm the link.
My great aunt Edith was night sister there in the 1950s – she used to get to one end of the buildings to the next on her bicycle, she was usually at her most active at nights and just to think running a place like that then. I would love to know if staff records exist too. We do have a picture of her in her nurse’s uniform. 🙂
My grand mother was a nurse there around 1926 would like to find out if any staff records exists I do have photographs of her in uniform have you found any records?
My grandmother Hellena Louise Jamieson was a patient in Middlesex hanwell asylum in about 1920 maybe a bit later when she died she was putting paupers grave
My great great grandmother was a patient in Hanwell for 32 years. She died there in 1893 and must have gone through many experiences during that time.
That sounds rather sad, but I hope it wasn’t.
Are there any buriel records for this establishment?
I should imagine there must be some somewhere. I’d be inclined to contact them and ask. Please let me know if you find anything.
This paragraph from Wikipedia may help regarding burial records I have just found out my 6x great grandfather died at Hanwell in 1870 so came across your very interesting blog by accident Mike.
“Anatomy Act (1832)[edit]
The friends or relatives of a deceased patient were free to remove the remains for burial. Failing this, the deceased were interred in unmarked paupers’ graves in the hospitals burial ground. With the 1832 Anatomy Act, the body was first kept in a building called the ‘dead house’, on the west side of the burial ground (see diagram above). If unclaimed after 72 hours it could be sold to a licensed anatomy school. The Act also provided for the donation of bodies.
As autopsies on paupers did need require the coroner’s permission, autopsies became common at the hospital. From 1845 the results of these autopsies were recorded in detail by Dr Hitchman.[15] “
Thank you, Sharon. Very interesting, if rather sad. The past was no bed of roses.
I hope its okay to post this as a bit of a help to family historians out there. this is part of a response I recently got from the London Metropolitan Archives who hold Hanwell’s records. It will help give an idea what you can expect.
“We hold the archives of Hanwell Asylum (which later became St Bernard’s Hospital). If you are able to visit us you are welcome to consult these records without prior appointment. Details of our opening hours, location and History Card registration are available on our website: http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma.
We would suggest that you begin your search by consulting the register of male deaths 1865-1876 (H11/HLL/B/16/003) as this will give you an idea of when Abraham Toy was admitted to Hanwell. When you have that date, you can then search the male admission registers (H11/HLL/B/04/001-005). There is also an extensive series of casebooks which record in detail the nature of patients’ conditions and their treatment in the hospital (H11/HLL/B/20/001-043).
There may be other records that you could search for further details as this is a large hospital collection, and you can see the extent of the records on our catalogue at http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma under the link to “Search online”. At the “simple search” page you can enter the reference code H11/HLL to see the catalogue for this collection. “
Thank-you Sharon. This particular post is quite frequently read as you can see from all the comments, including your earlier one from last year. I’m sure others will find this useful.
I feel quite chuffed that Mike Paterson chose to mention
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanwell_Asylum
For I am Aspro, the editor that created the Wikipedia article and spent countless hours of research to put some flesh on the bones of this very ground braking institution. The comments here (and on other websites) leaves me feeling that, that effort was all worth while. Up until that article, the general public knew and could find out little about this institution’s advancements in the treatment of mental health care (pity the modern NHS is now suffering from amnesia).
If anyone has any historical documents, letters, photographs, etc., they can mention these on the article’s talk page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Hanwell_Asylum
Many regards
Aspro
Very interesting All. It looks as if the asylum is being marketed for designer flats now!
My grandmother was a nurse about 1901 and so was her sisters is there photos around that time.
Trying to find details on my ancestor Martha sills died in hanwell asylum in 1842
If your ancestor died less than 100 years ago it would be difficult to have access to the patient records (for reasons of confidentially). However, as she past away in 1842 that in itself should not be a problem. There are three issues. (1)Were those records kept and did they survive? If they do exist they will either be in the
https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/london-metropolitan-archives/visitor-information/Pages/default.aspx
or
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/.
(2)Your email enquires may not get any useful response but persevere (they get lots of emails).
(3) A personal visit may yield better results. Take along all the information you have. Even if your not a historian these places are worth visiting. Also, as a taxpayer these records are your records so you have every right to view them. Take along a digital camera so that you can make copies. Hope this helps in some way.
Thanks for that!
In 1973, l spent five months as a patient at st Bernards, Being of an inquisitive nature I and another chap investigated some of the basement and underground passages, we found some cells, with evidence of the past cruelties including, chains, whips and thumbscrews! Fortunately no remaining bodies, but a strange and cavernous place, some leading to areas of the hospital not normally accessible. The Cemetery Area, seemed to be filled with odd sunken areas, and although not wet, this area was dank and overgrown due to the close proximity of the Brentford end of the Brentford/Avon/Kennet Canal. (Incidentally an aqueduct, viaduct and road cross one another at the extreme south east corner!) RAH
Hi. My mother marguerite Cunningham was a patient at hanwell and saint Bernards in the 1970s. I never knew her and I was wondering if you ever met her
Many thanks
Martin kennedy
My former fiancé spent 8 weeks here in 1984. He was an alcoholic and went there to detox. There were also patients who were addicted to prescription drugs in the same ward. He had no contact with the outside world for the first two weeks, after which I was able to visit. It was a very daunting place. The addicts were on one floor and there were people on the floor below who had been sectioned and you could hear them occasionally. I found it a very disquieting and daunting place to visit. I am sure it was haunted by the ghosts of patients past.
Thanks, Jane. That sounds rather bleak. I hope his stay had positive results.
Hi, my ancestor Louisa Jane Dalcho was admitted and died at Hanwell, how can I find out why and where she is interred.
Many thanks,
Hello Danielle. I think much depends on when this happened. I’m really not sure where one would start with this, but I think there are some helpful comments if you go through them.
Hi Danielle if you scroll up the comments you will come across one from me in Feb 2013. The London Metropolitan Archives hold the records for Hanwell and they have a website but the records are not online. You can go and view them they do a search service but the price of that has gone up a lot recently.
I was an inpatient at St Bernard’s for a year in 1978 – 79. I spent most of my time on the ‘admission’ wards in the (now demolished) ‘modern’ single story buildings on the east of the site. My ward was close to the now famous addiction unit run from the hospital. I Life in that unit looked tough from outside. Lots of group meetings and upset people. However,we now know that the treatment was pioneering AND successful so well done St Bernards for developing it. Meanwhile my pre SSRI drug regime and the kind care of my consultants Drs Baruch and Beasley gave me the rest and counsel that i needed to re enter the world.
I did have a short experience of the Victorian hospital however. industrial action by staff closed the admission wards for a short time in 1979 (I think that was the date). I was not well enough to be home so spent too weeks in the long stay facility of the hospital. in my depressed condition the architect of the ward seemed very foreboding, but most sad were my co patients. People who had been in the institution for many years and likely to be beyond the scope of return to the community. The ward was unnervingly quiet and I did not cope well with the locked door regime.
However, in summary, it is always so interesting to see how we respond to these buildings and their history as ‘outsiders’. My year as a patient at St Bernards taught me many things about my self and others. But mostly a respect for the term Asylum. How fortunate i was to be given the time to make a solid recovery at my own pace, in a place of safety.
Thanks, Elizabeth for your first hand account and testimony: a very helpful insight to this article. I hope life has treated you well since that time.
Good afternoon Elizabeth
My name is Martin Kennedy and my mother Margueritte Cunningham died in the hospital in 1978. I never knew her and have never met her so i am very interested to find out more about her last days alive. I am just wondering if you have sny recollection of her or if you could give me a pointer to how I could find out some information about her.
Kindest regards
Does anyone know what the rectangular holes in the Asylum wall was meant to receive – its near the old Asylum Dock where coal was delivered for the boilers, but these rectangular access points are clearly for something else – what ?
Those rectangular ports in the walls are to enable fire-pumps (fire engines) to pass their suction hoses through to the canal. The hoses for this are of larger diameter with spiral reinforcement to prevent them collapsing due the negative pressure caused by suction. The end is fitted with large filter called a Barrel strainer which prevents flotsam and jetsam getting into the pump. As you will have noticed the ports are red. They are locked shut on the other side with a brass padlock. Each Fire-engine carries a key for these which also open the padlocks on road-barriers access gates etc. This hospital is by no-means unique in having these. Many ports are scattered else where along canals. The explanation why they are still used, is that the fire brigade have to inform the local water utility as to how much of ‘their’ water gets used, as the utility expects to eventual receive payment for it. Which is usually the owner of the property or the respective insurance company.
A 4” main can deliver approx 1500 gallons of water per minute which is 6.189 cubic metres (or roughly the amount my daughter needs for each shower — twice that if she’s not in a hurry) charged at £1.0776 (ext vat.) per cubic metre. So you can do the math for cost of a big fire.
Also, taking water from a canal or pond, will avoid other water users experiencing a system pressure drop, as the pump sucks the water out rather than rely on mains pressure alone.
Cost taken from Affinity Water (St. Bernard’s Hospital’s suppler) website 2017/18 prices.
I do despair when people try to change history for the sake of modern political correctness. While some people in the 21st century might object to the word ‘inmate’ it was correct and in normal usage on censuses at the time. We must stop changing history.
Although it is exactly fifty years ago since I spent two six week periods (1969/70) in St Bernard’s in Ellis Ward as a voluntary admission, I have never forgotten it; it left an strong impression on me, and not a good one.
Ellis Ward was an open ward; you were free to walk around the hospital grounds if you wished to, i.e. if you didn’t want to sit in an armchair in the common room all day long watching some pointless television programme.
I found Ellis Ward and the rest of St Bernard’s (the external view of the grounds and buildings) a depressing, oppressive, frightening place. If you failed to respond to the drugs they initially tried you on, then ECT was a distinct next possibility. There was a padded cell in one of the corridors which looked odd but scary. Another memory is of being grabbed by the throat on one occasion by one nurse and pinned against a wall for queering my medication. I remember seeing patients wandering around the grounds with small circular depressions in the front of their foreheads as a result of a pre-frontal lobotomy. And for some reason (no doubt the laundry and the length of time they had been there) they always had suits that looked a size too small.
But for me the most scary feature was the consultant in charge of the ward. His name was Dr Russell. A seriously intimidating figure since he could basically decide what he wanted to do to you; I quickly formed the impression that your thoughts on the matter would have been irrelevant. Many years later I met a very kind consultant psychiatrist, Dr Baruch, who had been in charge of another ward, coincidentally whilst I was there. He voiced the opinion that Dr Russell had been an unhappy person. My reply was that he did not have to take it out on his patients.
I can genuinely say that St Bernard’s did nothing positive for me in respect of the mental health difficulties I was admitted with. It did however provide a short introduction into the cost-cutting nature of much NHS ‘treatment’ of mental illness at that time. Whilst they may be a bit more pleasant to you these days and the buildings are architecturally more attractive, there is still very little ‘talking’ therapy available, again for economic reasons.
Looking at the various photographs of St Bernard’s that can be found on the internet today, I still have a feeling of mild horror. Not dissimilar to when I look at photographs of say, Auschwitz, both institutions having a certain ‘industrial’ feel to them.
To end on a happier note though, I eventually managed to make something of my life, through my own efforts, despite considerable psychological difficulties. I eventually made it to university. My first degree was in sociology: one module of which was on the sociology of mental illness and for that I got my highest mark! I was a natural at that course.
I was a patient in st Bernards in the mid seventies I was treated for manic depression after the birth of my son and was treated for a shorter time later after a relapse yes the building does look intimidating but I was treated with nothing but kindness and i often feel my treatment was better than nowadays often patients are sent out into the community inadequate support.
Thanks for sharing your story, Pauline, and delighted to hear that you were treated well. I hope you’ve had a happier life subsequently.
My grandfather spent the last 18 months of his life at St Bernard’s, in the late 1970’s. Senile dementia. I doubt his condition would have been helped by being there. Apparently he was in Ferrymead ward. Anyone know Ferrymead?
My birth mother who I never met died there in 1978. I would love to hear more detail about the place in the late 1970s if anybody has any please
Thank you
My great grandfather John Ballantyne died in the hanwell April 25th 1905. he was an army pensioner ROYAL ARTILLARY had seen lots of fighting abroad. He was left traumatised and end his life a pauper. How sad is that . e as a hero. I am serching for his grave,and would like to know where that is.The family would like to put a memorial up for the hero. Finding out anything an up hill battle . pamela Fitzsimons
Pamela
The burial grounds were used for building the Regional Secure Unit (RSU). Any human remains which were uncovered were removed and later re-interned in the “Garden of Remembrance” which is the far western end of the original burial area.
https://www.asylumprojects.org/index.php/St._Bernards_Hospital
Enter this latitude and longitude coordinate below (just cut & past it) into google maps and it will show the exact position of the garden. On satellite view it appears as a small space with a white circle above a green circle and some trees, just above lock 94.
51.505742, -0.348513
If you look at this old aerial photo you’ll see lock 94 at bottom left. The burial ground is on the right of the canal and has a line of trees down the centre with rows of small bushes marking each grave.
This the health trusts website.
https://westlondon.nhs.uk/about-west-london-nhs-trust/sites-and-locations/st-bernards-hospital-ealing-community-services/
The trust today seem more interested in policy than people, letter-lone the dead. So if official enquiries come to nought, I suppose one could always just hammer a plaque into the flower bed, when no one is looking. The is already one there last time I looked a few months back. An undertaker will put you into contact with a company to cast a plaque for you.
The canal and flight of locks is a nice area to walk along, so if you visit do have a walk along there and see Brunel’s famous Three Bridges.
Good Luck.
thank you so much . It is very important that I find out what happened to John Ballantynes body he was my great grandfather who served his country and ended up in such a bad place when he was a hero . I have learnt alot in the past months about what hmans did to humans .Thank you so much Pamela
Hello,
I’m replying to your post rather later I’m afraid. I’m trying to find where my paternal grandmother was buried. She was a patient at St Bernards and died there in November 1940. I don’t know where the funeral was or where she was buried. I know she wasn’t buried in the same place as other family members. I found her patient records at London Metropolitan Archives, but they only have funeral records for 1944-60. I contacted Cherished Land who did the disinterments, and they said that some remains were moved to Gunnersbury and Woking, but no luck there. Do you know where the burial records are? I’d be so grateful, we knew very little about her until recently, the family were quiet about it.
Thanks, Martin
Unfortunately I don’t know where those records would be. When the St Bernard Museum collection was broken up and dispersed, apart from that which went to the London Metropolitan Archives, some of it went to Bethlem Royal Hospital, some to The Wellcome Trust and some to the local Gunnersbury Park Museum. Also, I suspect it may not have been carful sorted through so these records could have ended up with any.
One thought is that as the Burial Act of 1857 requires that all interments need to be recorded and attached to the Title Deeds of a Property, then (in theory) the West London NHS Trust Estates Department which is responsible for looking after the grounds might be able to give directions as to whom to ask. They need to dig holes to plant trees etc., so I would hope that the manager (who I believe is currently Phil Mitchell) would know or find out for you, who in the trust has a copy of said Title Deeds. They have probably had similar inquires so hopefully can at least direct you in the right direction. You could hint that you don’t want to put them to the trouble of a formal F.O.I.A. request and just need to know the whereabouts of a copy of the circa 1940 records.
Outside chance that she may be listed here: Saint Bernard’s Hospital Garden of Remembrance
Hanwell, London Borough of Ealing, Greater London, England. https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2549368/saint-bernard's-hospital-garden-of-remembrance
Also, ask questions on the Ancestry sites. It may be that someone else knows the easiest route to take to these records.
Good luck
Thank you so much, that is very kind. I’ll start following these new leads. The Estates Department sounds like a good idea, they must know where remains are located. I will keep trying. My grandmother was all but forgotten about when she went into the hospital, and my father never knew what happened to her. As far as I know, I’m the first person to really look for her since she died. It means a lot, and it would have meant a lot to my father. Thank you again.
Martin
I was a student nurse at West Middlesex Hospital from 1974. I think that it was sometime during 1975 that I had a 3 month placement at St Bernard’s hospital. My first experience was 6 weeks on Kent ward. It was in the old block, on the top floor and it was a locked ward, with restricted, lockable rooms and a padded cell. I had to knock on the main door to the ward to be let in at the start of my shift. The door was locked behind me and I was locked in with the patients. Most of the patients were ‘acutely disturbed’. This was how they were described by the doctors and nurses. There behaviour being unpredictable and at times violent and aggressive. Mainly towards each other. The patients slept in a large dormitory, with beds lining the walls and 2 rows of beds running through the centre of the dormitory.
As a 19 year old it appeared a very scary place to be, but I have fond memories of some of the patients and incidents that happened. I remember we had a lady on the ward who was a member of the Bowes-Lyon family. She had a mink coat in her wardrobe and wore about 20+ rows of pearls and necklaces. But she wouldn’t get in the bath no matter how much encouragement we gave her.
My second ward was an open ward, I think it was Ellis. I remember taking patients across to other wards on a Saturday evening for a disco.
As a group of student nurses we were taken on a tour of the dungeons, with the shackles and chains still attached to the walls.
It was part of our training back then, so we just accepted it for what it was. However times have changed, treatment has also changed and hopefully places like this will no longer exist.
I spent almost four years living in the staff accommodation at St Bernards – a rather ugly 70s red brick building very out of sympathy with the old buildings) (November 74 to February 78) and a brief time working there (December 74 – April 75) in the occupational therapy department. My (then) husband was a psychiatric registrar working at the hospital. A lot of Australian expats passed through the hospital during the 60s and 70s At that time it was very much a shadow of its former self, having been in the past a self sufficient community. The grounds and surrounds were still interesting to wander in which I did often. It was a forbidding place for patients and there were many in the long stay wards who would never find their way to such an institution even by the 70s (i.e they were socially non conforming – especially women – but not mentally ill) but by that time it was very much “home” to them and formed a community of sorts.
I do not live in the UK now but last time I passed by St Bernards (I didn’t go in) it had become the St Bernards wing of a larger institution.
Thanks, Robin. A very interesting contribution.