ABSTRACT
T he 181 5 Select Committee and the move to St George's Fields were seen by contemporaries as dividing 'former' and present' times for Bethlem.1 When
Martin had no reason to offer a favourable view of the Hospital, and the 1828 Select Committee into private madhouses equally considered that Bethlem was 'new Bedlam', without the scandals of the old. When the Duke and Duchess of York and the Duke of Gloucester visited in 1817 they expressed 'the highest satisfaction ... in the accommodation and treatment of the patients'. This was a marked contrast to the conditions Edward Wakefield, the Quaker philanthropist who had first brought the situation at Bethlem to light in 18 14, had revealed in his statements to the Select Committee.4 It also presented a favourable picture of Bethlem when compared with conditions in working-class homes, workhouses, or other asylums. The Report on the Sanitary Condition 0/ the Labouring Classes revealed a picture of damp and disease-ridden hovels where people were worse off than animals.s Even at the purpose-built Colney Hatch asylum, for example, conditions could deteriorate. Here patients slept on the floor or were kept in side rooms for weeks at a time, and the asylum was overcrowded and understaffed.6 Martin accounted for the differences at the Hospital entirely in terms of the impact of outside investigation: 'but for the inquiry of the committee of
However, Martin's report showed that problems remained behind the 'scrupulous cleanliness which prevails throughout the house, the decent attire of the patients, and the unexpectedly small number of those under restraint'. He felt that 'on an attentive consideration of the subject ... it is submitted that there is still room for considerable improvement'. Problems were blamed on 'the construction of the building'.8 Criticisms contained in the Charity Commission's report did not alter the conclusion. They felt that the Governors had tried to carry out substantial reforms to improve the management, address the appalling conditions exposed in 181 5, and solve the problems that continued to arise, especially in the administration. It was an ongoing process that was not entirely successful.
