Vwegba Blogging World

How Bedlam became London's most iconic symbol Known colloquially as "Bedlam," Bethlem Royal Hospital in England was once a torturous facility that crammed people with mental illness together with violent criminals. Indeed, for hundreds of years, Bedlam was simply a repository for society's "undesirables," and with poor management and even poorer resources, the hospital soon came to define chaos. Because the hospital relied on donations from patients' families, many of whom did not have the means to pay more than was required of them, Bedlam opened its doors in the 18th century as a sort of sideshow attraction, charging the public for admission as though it were a carnival. Some 96,000 visitors a year came to Bedlam to gawk at the patients. As one travel writer observed in 1725, "Lunatics of every description are shut up. Many inoffensive madmen walk in the big gallery. The second floor is reserved for dangerous maniacs, most of them being chained an...