The Madness Of Crowthorne
When Broadmoor began life in the 1860s the attitude towards mental health was radically different.
Asylums were kept as far away from normal communities as possible - an 'out of sight, out of mind' mentality.
The Broadmoor 'criminal lunatic asylum', as it was called, was opened in 1863 with 95 female patients. A block for male patients followed a year later.
The hospital was built after the passing of the Criminal Lunatics Act of 1860 - also called the Broadmoor Act.
It drew attention to the poor conditions in British asylums such as Bethlehem Hospital, which was known as 'Bedlam'.
It also followed the setting up of the McNaughton Rules, a series of questions which determined whether a person was too insane to be charged with a criminal offence.
The site covered 290 acres (116 hectares) on the edge of the Berkshire moors some 32 miles from London.
The asylum was "intended for the reception, safe custody and treatment of persons who had committed crimes while actually insane or who became insane whilst undergoing sentence of punishment".
'Yorkshire Ripper' Peter Sutcliffe is one patient at the hospital
The imposing building was designed by Major General Joshua Jebb, a military engineer who is said to have based the building off two other hospitals - Wakefield in Britain and Turkey's Scutari Hospital.
The site also included cultivated land and 57 cottages for the use of staff. Even a school was built on the grounds.
Security was reported to be very lax during the asylum's early years. The first Physician Superintendent, Dr John Meyer, was attacked by a patient while attending a service at the asylum's chapel soon after it opened.
Security improved after Dr Orange took over as the second head of the asylum a few years later.
Famous patient
The asylum hosted some of the British Empire's most notorious criminals. Roderick MacLean, who shot at Queen Victoria at Windsor Station, was sent here in 1882 after being found "not guilty by reason of insanity".
Possibly the most famous, though, was Dr William Chester Minor, the former US Army physician who spent 38 years in the hospital after killing a man outside his house in London after going insane.
While staying in Broadmoor, Dr Minor, a learned scholar with an enormous library, sent thousands of citations and quotations to the first Oxford English Dictionary.
Broadmoor changed from institution to hospital after the 1948 Criminal Justice Act.
In 1952 security was stepped up after a patient, J.T Straffe, escaped and killed a young girl while he was at large. Now there is a siren at the hospital - if it sounds, local schools and institutions have to lock their doors.
A cordon is also set up around the nearby village of Crowthorne and each car checked by the police.
In recent decades, the hospital's inmates have come to include Peter Sutcliffe, the 'Yorkshire Ripper' jailed for murdering prostitutes in the north of England in the 1970s.
It also houses some of the country's most serious sex offenders.
More recently, the hospital has been dogged by accusations of high levels of sexual abuse suffered by female patients.
It has been claimed a woman tried to hang herself last year after alleging she had been raped on a sports field by a fellow patient.
Comments and faves
xravenknellx added this photo to her favorites. (47 months ago)
balticbooty (44 months ago | reply)
Excellent profile of Broadmoor Hospital. Love the picture and the blood down the side. Would love to see if anyone has taken pictures from the inside. Grim stuff
Marc Bibby Dogtography (44 months ago | reply)
Thanks, belive me it would be easier to swim the Atlantic than to get a camera inside this place, i used to work for an electrical company as a delivery driver and just to deliver a few light bulbs to the maintenance department could take several hours with all the security measures, and i'm talking about glass floors that you have to drive over , massive scanners and metal detectors and then once inside you are not allowed to leave your vehicle under any circumstances.
Easy to forget that Broadmoor is a hospital not a prison.
DarkfaeKILLS added this photo to her favorites. (44 months ago)
hullstockhull (41 months ago | reply)
Great photo and history. I hear the test sirens every Monday from my office, but had no idea about it's history until reading this. Thanks!
Marc Bibby Dogtography (41 months ago | reply)
My pleasure.
i~candy added this photo to his favorites. (40 months ago)
i~candy (40 months ago | reply)
I grew up in Crowthorne, about 1/2 mile from the Hospital.
I remember many escapes in the 70's and early 80's when we had to be picked up from school by a parent. We would lock all the doors and the police would do a house to house looking in garages and sheds for the escapees, most of whom broke something going over the wall and didn't get very far.
The police and army would also set up road blocks around the village and stop every car looking into the boots of each.
Another notorious inmate/patient was Ronnie Kray.
Jimmy Saville used to regularly visit the Hospital and was a familiar sight in Crowthorne during the early 80's
The hospital also features in the 80's hit "Sound of the Suburbs" by The Members.
balticbooty (40 months ago | reply)
"10 O´Clock, Broadmoor Sirens Driving me mad, won´t me leave me alone" The Sound of the Suburbs.
I remember those moments when someone escaped well.
janwimms (37 months ago | reply)
I went to school at Edgbarrow and remember having to wait for mum to come and collect me. The scariest time was when we were on a cross country run and the siren went off!! After school I lived in Crowthorne for a bit and remember the siren going off and the neighbour across the road running out of his house doing his trousers up. It was really the safest place once the siren had gone due to the staff and police. Also remember seeing Jimmy Saville numerous times running through Sandhurst and Crowthorne.
redeyesatdawn and nolavicar added this photo to their favorites.