St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics was founded in London in 1751 for the treatment of incurable lunatics. It was the second public institution in London created to look after mentally ill people, after the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlem (Bedlam, founded in 1246).

The hospital was originally housed in a converted foundry in Windmill Street, Upper Moorfields, close to Bedlam. It moved to purpose-built premises on Old Street, on the north-west corner of Providence Row, in 1786. Behind the main building were two gardens for the exercise of the less disturbed inmates, one for men and another for women. More dangerous residents were kept inside, or in their cells. The patients were transferred to other institutions in 1916, and the buildings were acquired by the Bank of England to become the St Luke's Printing Works, used for printing bank notes until the early 1950s.

A new St Lukes opened at Woodside Avenue, Muswell Hill, in 1930, associated with Middlesex Hospital.