Glenside Hospital Museum

Glenside Hospital Museum sits inside the Glenside Campus of the University of the West of England in Fishponds, Bristol. The chapel that now houses the collection was built in 1861 and is a grade II listed building. Dr Donal F. Early, a consultant psychiatrist, started the museum by gathering items on the balcony of the dining hall. When the hospital closed, the collection moved to the chapel and grew into today’s museum. The displays include objects and images from Glenside Hospital’s past, when it was known as the Bristol Lunatic Asylum and later the Beaufort War Hospital. Paintings by Dennis Reed, who captured life at Glenside in the 1950s, hang in the chancel. The museum holds early electroconvulsive therapy machines and photographs of patients from the 1890s. Retired mental health nurse Paul Tobia researched the lives and care of these patients for the displays. During World War I the site became the Beaufort War Hospital, treating up to 1,460 wounded soldiers at a time. Stanley Spencer worked there in 1915–1916 as a medical orderly and later described his experiences in letters and paintings. A blue plaque and artwork were unveiled in 2009 to mark the 50th anniversary of Spencer’s death. Visitors find the museum inside the former chapel, where original fittings and memorials remain. The chancel displays Dennis Reed’s paintings of hospital life. Photographs and objects from the asylum’s different eras line the walls. The building’s history as a military hospital during the war is also explained. The quiet chapel setting contrasts with the stories of care and conflict once held within its walls.