Common Lodging Houses

Liberty and the individual: the colony asylum in Scotland and England

“…It is nonetheless possible that ‘medicalized’ asylum buildings were, in fact, viewed by the Lancashire (and other) asylum authorities as more advanced than domestic-style surroundings which might trap dirt and be insufficiently lit and ventilated. Whalley may be seen as the fulfilment of a late-nineteenth-century trend towards hospitalization of asylum architecture and interiors, sometimes at odds with the desire to provide more ‘home-like’ surroundings (Hamlett, 2015: 25).…”

“…This implies a detachment from the asylum project not supported by close analysis of buildings and primary sources, which reveals both deliberate attention to the therapeutic effect of buildings and spaces and a less conscious embedding of material practices within their local cultural contexts. This paper advances the work of asylum historians who have focused on the therapeutic significance of asylum buildings and environments, both from an architectural perspective (Andrews et al, 1997; Malcolm, 2009; Markus, 1993; Richardson, 1998; Rutherford, 2003; Stevenson, 2000; Taylor, 1991; Topp, 2007; Yanni, 2007) and addressing the materiality of asylum spaces, interiors and exteriors (Fennelly, 2014; Hamlett, 2015; Hickman, 2013; Philo, 1989). The present paper approaches asylum materiality as illustrative of trends beyond the discursive constructions of mental illness and provides a detailed analysis of external forms, interior spaces and furnishings, drawing out connections between materiality and broader social currents.…”

Middle-class Fathers, Sons, and Mental Illness in Late Victorian and Edwardian England

“…Historians have emphasized the fear and shame felt by middle-(and upper-) class families in this period when confronted with madness among its members, particularly in view of the widespread belief in the hereditary nature of mental illness: this article assesses whether shame was indeed the dominant response when fathers or sons became unwell. 5 It investigates the strategies deployed firstly by fathers and then by adult sons to deal with and care for the mentally ill, assessing whether the priority was indeed to hide evidence of mental illness for the sake of the family as a whole, irrespective or even to the detriment of the sufferer's well-being.…”