“Places themselves don’t cure and treat people, that depends on compassionate and competent staff,” says Dr John Hall, a former head psychologist at Warneford and historian in mental health.
He said in the 1700s privately owned “mad houses” were built to house people with mental ill health.
Warneford was built with just 40 beds, which was a far cry from the inner city asylums of the time, which would have up to 2,000.
Hall said: “They were very small, they were built to a much higher standard of accommodation, so many patients would have a single room, whereas in the larger asylums there would be dormitories or 30, 40, 50 patients.”
The new hospital treated people who were “manic” and “often expressing delusions” and also those who at the time who were described as “melancholic,” which would now be referred to as “depressed”.