St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics

St Luke’s Hospital for Lunatics opened in 1751 in London as the second public institution for mentally ill people after Bedlam. Founded by apothecaries and philanthropists, it aimed to treat incurable pauper lunatics. The first physician, Dr William Battie, insisted patients should not be shown to the public. Treatment then included cold plunge baths to ‘shake lunatics out of their insanity’. The hospital began in a converted foundry near Bedlam, designed by George Dance the Elder. By 1786 it moved to a grand brick building on Old Street, 500 feet long with separate male and female wards. Each of the 300 single cells had high windows, no heating and straw beds. By 1865 it housed 150 to 160 middle-class patients, achieving a 67 to 70 per cent cure rate compared to 15 per cent elsewhere. Behind the main building were two gardens for less disturbed patients, while more dangerous ones stayed confined indoors. The hospital closed in 1916 and its buildings became a printing works for bank notes. A later St Luke’s opened in 1930 at Muswell Hill, known as Woodside Nerve Hospital. Notable patients included the poet Christopher Smart and RAF officer Leonard Cheshire. The site was sold after wards closed in 2011, ending the hospital’s long history.