The Hospital of Bethlem [Bedlam] at Moorfields, London: seen from the north, with ladies and gentlemen walking in the foreground. Engraving.

London (at the Black Horse, in Cornhil) : John Bowles & son

1 print : engraving, with watercolour ; image 17.7 x 23.8 cm

Bethlem Hospital ; Moore Fields. The main lettering is in a swallow-tailed banderole in the sky Lettering continues: "This Hospital was first founded in the year 1246, to be a Priory of Canons and Sisters to recieve the Bishop of Bethlem & c, when he should have occasion to travel hither. K. Henry 8th gave the house to the citizens of London, and they with great charge converted it into an Hospital for Lunatics. It formerly stood in an obscure place, and was to little and close to recieve the number of patients brought thither, but 'tis now erected against the City Wall, fronting the Fields, in a very pleasant airy scituation. It is a commodious and spacious structure, built of brick and free stone, handsomely adorn'd with ornaments and carving &c. it is 540 foot long, and 40 broad, besides the wall which encloseth the gardens before it and contains appartments for 150 lunaticks, 60 or 70 being cured there every year.

Bears letter: "t"

B. Adams, London illustrated, London, 1983, number 28/28 [p.67]

Wellcome Collection 25625i