Outside the Asylum
Worcester City and County Pauper Lunatic Asylum opened to patients in 1852, and closed less than fifty years ago, in 1989. During this time, more than 25,000 patients were treated. Whilst many people may have an idea in their head of what a Victorian lunatic asylum was like, the lives of patients within the asylum and day-to-day occurrences are often forgotten or ignored in the historical narrative.
A few items have been selected to create a better understanding of a lunatic asylum from the perspective of the patients, and to show how mental illness was viewed and treated in the nineteenth century. Click any of the objects below to find out more. Many of these items are also on display at the George Marshall Medical Museum. Head back to the Outside the Asylum homepage to find out more about the patients’ lives before and after admission.
