Stories from England’s first Criminal Lunatic Asylum

Dr William Orange

The Royal Berkshire Archive looks after the historic archives of Broadmoor Hospital. Thanks to generous grants from The Wellcome Trust these archives are now available for research, subject to access restrictions. The archives tell the history of this unique institution.

There are many individual patient histories within the archive, and the pages below tell some of these.

An updated edition of the book Broadmoor Revealed was published for the hospital’s 150th anniversary in 2013; a related book, Life in the Victorian Asylum, is also available.

Downloads: 

Protocol for Access to Broadmoor Hospital Records

Related links:

Broadmoor Revealed: the talk – Listen to Mark Stevens speak about the Victorian Asylum at The National Archives