by Mark Stevens
The chapel may be entered through the vast east door, and inside, you can appreciate the coloured light that radiates from the stained glass windows, which are shaped in gothic arches. At the altar end, patterns emerge where the sun leaks in through the etched glass. Above you is a vaulted ceiling, with oak rafters sitting on corbels of Portland stone, while at ground level are bench pews fashioned from elm. We are obliged to provide seating in the chapel for three quarters of our patient number, over 200 men and women. The staff sit at the front, perpendicular to the patients and able to observe them. Opposite the pulpit is a wooden harmonium, while to the side hangs a notice board, the numbers of the hymns from the recent service slotted into the grooves within it.
On leaving the chapel, we may take the pathway back towards the main drive and the asylum entrance. As we return, it is worth remarking on two areas that are slightly distinct from the principal accommodation: the engine house and workshops for the male patients, and the asylum laundry. We come to the laundry first, as it is nearest to the chapel. An efficient asylum laundry is of great importance, and foul linen should be quickly cleansed.
There are various rooms within the laundry; some have wooden washing troughs, supplied with hot and cold taps, in which linen is washed with soap and then rinsed. The air is moist and humid here, even with the windows open. We find that it is generally more agreeable for our laundresses to undertake washing by hand, although we have recently installed two of Haden’s revolving machines, which allow for a greater volume of items in one wash. At first, we found that steam from these machines caused condensation on the copper pipes running above the drums. This condensation dripped upon the laundry maids and the garments, staining the latter with an iron hue and, as a result, it was necessary to move the pipework into adjacent rooms.
The room immediately beside the wash rooms is used for mangling with a centrifugal wringer, which is a more reliable aid to drying than a hand mangle. To one side of the room are two drying closets into which steam is delivered, with an outdoor yard nearby for drying in the summer months, and a room for ironing linen.
To the other side of the asylum entrance is the engine house and workshops on the male side. The steam for the drying closets is provided by the engine here. Inside the single-storey building with a high, vaulted roof, coal is added each day to one of the boilers, which powers the great steam engine and its pumps. Thus heat is transferred to the cisterns and pipes in the living accommodation. The boilers are used alternately so that their working life might be extended; their room is ventilated by another vast chimney. The engine house operates at a tremendous temperature, while its noisy, thunderous occupant can roar like a dragon. Attached to it is a hooter that is used as the asylum alarm and sounded in emergency, to draw staff towards the main block.
Next to the boiler room is a store for the mountain of shiny black fuel ready to be consumed. Hundreds of tons of coal are delivered each year for burning in the boilers or the stoves of the main building. There are other coal stores around the site but this is the largest, and it is tended during the working day by a patient who helps the stoker.
In the other half of this house of industry lie the shops for shoemaking, painting, carpentry and upholstery, as well as a tailor’s and a blacksmith’s forge. Unlike the laundry, there is no mechanisation within these workshops and tools are provided for work by hand. Some half a dozen male patients may be found at any time in these shops, helping the artisan attendants that we employ.
The Principal Block
Now we have completed our tour of the out-buildings on the site, we will return to the main entrance. You will notice that our principal block is also constructed from brick, in the fashionable, gothic revivalist style. It resembles a fine house far more than an austere workhouse.
The Commissioners in Lunacy expound much advice about an asylum’s principal accommodation, and we have followed this carefully. The block is constructed towards the northern end of the estate, leaving the expanse of uplifting grounds towards the south unimpeded. Then, in keeping with the use of southerly views to promote better health, our officers’ administrative quarters have all been placed on the north side of the building beside the main door. Here is the wood-panelled committee room where our visitors meet; here also are the offices of those who are constantly engaged in the management of this institution – the medical superintendent and his assistant officer, the asylum steward, and the clerk. The superintendent’s domestic accommodation is within a wing branching off this main entrance.
The structure allows for the seamless integration of work and home life for the staff. Within the walls are additional furnished living quarters for all the unmarried senior staff. Their rooms are commensurate with the status in life that these gentlemen (and lady) have achieved, and they are not at liberty to better the fittings without a reference to the committee of visitors, who will form a view of what might be acceptable.
The same approach to decoration is evident throughout the patient accommodation. Whilst we strive to provide an attractive, bright ambience at all times, we are obliged to give consideration to the limits of the public’s generosity. Any object must have a clear use, any ornamentation justified likewise. That is not to suggest that our wards have an unfinished air, as skirtings, architraves and other woodwork are all provided in line with the best of domestic architectural practice. Similarly, doors and windows are of solid wood, though not adorned as you might expect within finer family homes.
The main asylum building consists of three storeys, with the second and third devoted chiefly to sleeping accommodation, while the entrance level is given over mostly to living space required throughout the daylight hours. The patients’ accommodation within the asylum divides roughly into one-third for watched patients and two-thirds for those who can be allowed some degree of freedom. The watched encompass those who are sick, as well as those recently admitted or who must be prevented from causing injury to themselves or others. The patients in possession of greater freedom include those at labour, the more composed, or those who have recovered from their symptoms and are now convalescing.
Around the square core of the asylum ground floor runs a wide, enclosed corridor, illuminated at either end by a large window or glazed partition, and which forms a simple route around the centre of the building. In common with the rest of the asylum accommodation, it has a generous ceiling height of fifteen feet, allowing for circulation of air and a sense of space. The walls are plastered and whitewashed, while floorboards of seasoned oak have been laid. These are robust, pliant and also easy to clean without the application of water. Beneath them, air moves throughout the masonry and adds to the thorough ventilation of the building.
You will rarely see this central corridor unless you are brought through it for some purpose, perhaps to see the visitors, the superintendent or for a meeting. There are two reasons for this: first, the corridor provides access only to the offices, stores and staff rooms in the midst of the asylum and second, it is a neutral space between the great divide within the asylum, the separation of the male and female patients. For an axis can be run down the centre of this building that splits the accommodation belonging to the men from that of the women. This is a requisite and sensible precaution for control, as well as for the better protection of modesty. Yet it is also for your better health, as while men and women may enjoy each other’s society, the accompanying complications can be detrimental to their mental wellbeing.
The only spaces to which patients on both sides of the corridor have recourse are the dining room and recreational hall. The dining room is designed to accommodate the entire asylum population, and each side has separate tables and benches for its own use. When we originally opened the asylum this room was cleared of furniture when entertainments were staged, but we now have the benefit of a discrete hall behind the dining room, connected with it by sliding doors. This hall has a stage and storage area for theatrical equipment, dressing rooms, and sufficient space f
or temporary seating.
The kitchen is accessible from the dining hall by serving hatches through which the food is passed. For ease of cleaning, the lower parts of the kitchen walls and its floor are tiled. Its working area has two substantial cooking ranges, each with a brick and iron oven and two boilers, heated by steam from the range. Vast quantities of vegetables are cooked on further boilers in the kitchen scullery, preventing the smell of cooking from overpowering the dining hall. There is a general store for groceries, and meat and dairy larders, with ventilation shafts to bring in air and keep produce cool.
The dining room and recreation hall are at the southerly end of the central corridor. Branching off to the east and west are two more divisions: covered walkways, leading off towards the south blocks and the north blocks of the asylum, where the patient accommodation is located.
The arrangement and contents of each block are broadly similar. Their names arise, as you might suppose, from their aspects. The south blocks have views over the asylum gardens and across the river, while the north block looks laterally towards the chapel, on the female side, and the farm on the male. In the larger south blocks convalescing and recently admitted patients reside, while the north blocks house those with more active and destructive forms of insanity.
Fanning out across the north and south blocks are the day-rooms for each sex, which also provide access to the grounds or the enclosed airing courts. The day-rooms afford no less than forty square feet for each patient and there is one for every ward, so that patients do not have to encounter those with different needs. These rooms are intended to help patients socialise during the day.
A wooden bead painted bright blue runs around the day-room walls at a height of five feet; above it the wall is whitewashed, below it is a warm, stone colour. The rooms have large, oak-framed windows, which open with a sash to afford liberal intake of fresh air. There are bay windows with seating built into them. All window openings on the ground floor are at a low level, so that the drop is not so great as to facilitate accidents. A fire stove is the centrepiece of each room. These stoves also heat the air drawn from outside the building and deliver it through grates placed around the day-room. The stoves are surrounded by an oak mantelpiece, and in all but wards for the most destructive patients, the mantelpiece is topped by a mirror framed in polished birch.
The rooms are lit by coal gas from our own works, which burns with great intensity to produce an excellent light; modern production methods have mostly removed the slightly sour, sulphurous smell with which it was long associated. Candles are on hand for use in case of an interrupted supply.
We strive overall for a look of domesticity and comeliness. In each day-room there is a variety of seating, with birch settees, high and low-backed chairs, and some padded smoking chairs beside sturdy tables. The latter may be decked with brightly-covered tablecloths, in colours that do not clash tempestuously with those of the room; while small card tables are supplied for writing or playing games. Some low chairs with padded backs and arms are available to more infirm patients.
As far as it is safe to do so, decorations to improve the atmosphere or articles for the amusements of patients will be placed within the day-rooms. The former include such items as potted plants or caged singing birds, while among the latter might be books or papers on an appropriate stand or case, or card or other games. Engravings of humorous or contemplative scenes have been hung in generous, attractive frames upon the walls. A letter box is provided, either in the room itself or the attendants’ office, for patients’ use.
Attached to each day-room is a small, tiled scullery equipped with a stove and sink. These sculleries are not accessible to patients, but allow the attendants to provide hot water throughout the day, or to prepare small amounts of food, if necessary. A serving hatch from each opens onto its adjacent day-room.
The windows of the day-rooms look out on to the airing courts. Each day-room also has a door that opens out on to the airing courts, and these doors may be unlocked all day on the less secure wards, or unlocked on the more secure wards when the attendants are ready for patients to take a turn outdoors. Access to all rooms on some wards is controlled via door locks; if you are placed on a restricted ward, you will need to be escorted either to or from your day-room by the staff.
The Upper Floors
Although some of our dormitories are at ground level, it is on the two upper floors that you will find the bulk of our sleeping accommodation. These are reached via one of a number of staircases at either end of the covered walkways. Each is enclosed within its own well, so that patients are never at risk of falling from a height, and a handrail is provided opposite the side where a banister might usually be found.
It is probably in one of the upstairs rooms that you will be allotted your own, regulated space. Overall, we may house a maximum of 285 patients at any time. There are slightly more rooms on the female side than the male, in keeping with the greater number of female patients expected within an asylum. By far the larger number of our beds are laid out within dormitories, and it is in one of these that you will spend most – if not all – your nights here. Dormitories of between eight and fifteen beds provide sleeping accommodation for 222 of our patients and, though space is shared, you are guaranteed a minimum of 600 square feet for your comfort.
In each dormitory the beds are arranged against the internal walls, which provides more insulation and also affords a clear view of the dormitory windows and the prospect beyond. The windows operate by a sash, which opens five inches wide so that fresh air can enter but patients cannot fall out. You will see a similar attention to space and fittings as within the day-rooms: an arched wooden door, once unlocked for you, reveals timber floors, plastered walls and an open fireplace. The fireplace is seldom used, as the hot air heating system employed in the day-rooms has also been found sufficient here, while ventilation grates carry the warmth through a system of flues to the connecting corridors. Only in the most severe weather do we find it necessary to light the upstairs fires or to issue extra winter blankets, despite the fact that the ceilings are high and there is a greater allocation upstairs of space per patient.
The dormitories are also lit by coal gas with a pendant lamp hanging from the centre of each room. A lavatory table is provided, incorporating four removable basins, together with soap bowls and towel rails, so that patients may wash or be washed at any time. It can be pushed on castors from bed to bed. Each dormitory also has a commode chair as an alternative to the water closets, while movable screens provide the necessary privacy. Lastly, there is a communal locker in each dormitory so that patients’ clothes can be secured at night. These lockers incorporate a bench seat in front of them, on which patients may sit to dress or undress.
An attendant’s room overlooks each dormitory. A communication port within each room allows for supervision and also the swift report of any disturbance amongst the patients. Each attendant’s room is furnished with a cupboard, shelving and hooks for clothes.
There are slight differences between the dormitories in each block. In the south blocks, the first floor dormitories have adjacent day-rooms, while the second floor is given over entirely to bedrooms. This upper floor accommodates the greatest number of male and female patients: there are six dormitories with twelve beds, and two with fourteen, together with eight single rooms. In the north blocks, both the upper floors are used solely for sleeping, with two large dormitories of fifteen on the male side, and one on the women’s, and five single rooms on either side on each floor. The windows in the dormitories are also slightly smaller in the north block, for better safety.
We appreciate that every patient would prefer a single room, but for reasons of economy and security we are able to provide only sixty-three patients with that luxury. Single bedrooms are reserved for patients who are shortly to be discharged on trial, sick in body, or at risk of causing harm to others. These whitewashed bedrooms provide a greater personal space, though there is no direct sour
ce of heat, only a grate bringing in warmer air from the corridor outside. Each single room incorporates additional safety features: strong wooden shutters cover the windows when the room is occupied, and the solid oak doors are designed to open outwards only.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to provide light in the single rooms on the north side once the doors and shutters are closed for occupancy, though in the south block the bedrooms include high level, plate glass apertures above the doors to allow in gas light from the corridors.
What our dormitories lack in both individual space and privacy is amply compensated for by their level of comfort. Although a number of asylums make use of iron bed frames, we felt that American birch was warmer, and it allows us to easily build crib bedsteads for agitated patients, while for patients prone to fits we can make a bedstead with four padded sides. We use hair mattresses wherever possible, though coir padding is placed within mattresses for those who may be destructive, or liable to soil themselves at night, as coir pads are harder to rip and more absorbent. Sheets are linen and wool, and are changed every fortnight. A simple white counterpane is placed above the blankets on the female wards, while bright colours and varied patterns are used on the male side. This enables the laundry to keep the linen belonging to the two sides entirely separate.
On the ground and first floors in the north block are rooms fitted out for patients requiring the highest level of safety and security. These are the padded rooms. There are two for patients of each sex. One of the male rooms has its walls covered with hard-wearing leather, while the other three rooms are all treated similarly with India-rubber cloth. The leather room and one of the women’s rooms have an additional flooring of linoleum rather than wood, which is easier to clean. These rooms are for occasional use by patients perceived to be at great risk of damaging themselves, other patients or asylum property.