ABSTRACT
Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum opened in April 1863 in the village of Crowthorne, some 40 miles west of London. Originally intended for up to 400 patients, the hospital slowly expanded, necessitating the establishment of a “northern branch” at Rampton, midway between Nottingham and Lincoln, in 1912. In 1933, additional secure services were provided at a third hospital, Moss Side, near Liverpool. The population of the three Special Hospitals
continued to rise to a peak of 2,522 in 1956.1 The population halved over the next 50 years, to 1292 in 2000, and subsequently has continued to fall even more rapidly (see Table 100.1).
