Fair Mile Hospital

Explore the Victorian Asylum

Click on the thumbnails for a larger image:

Patient's diet sheet, 1870
This page from the annual reports shows the weekly menu for patients’ food in 1870. The diet was monotonous and a huge amount of bread was consumed, but the patients also ate fresh fruit and vegetables from the gardens. The rations at Fair Mile probably compared well to what patients ate at home, and were certainly far more generous than in the workhouse.
Document reference: [Q/AL 12/1 (part)]

Photographs of ward decorated for Christmas, c.1913
These photographs show asylum wards decorated for Christmas. The asylum had a friends’ society who donated decorations and distributed Christmas cards and oranges to the patients, and the staff had geese for their Christmas meal. There was a special theatrical performance each year at Christmas time to which members of the public were invited.
Document reference: [courtesy of Judy & Stuart Dewey of Pie Powder Press]

Table of clothing sewn by patients, 1877
This table from the annual report of 1877 shows the vast quantities of clothing and household items sewn by the female patients that year. 
Document reference: [Q/AL 12/2 (part)]
 
 

Table of supposed causes of insanity, 1882
This table from the annual report of 1882 shows that patients’ supposed causes of insanity were divided into physical or ‘moral’ (what we might now call psychological) causes, though the supposed causes were often simply coincidences or conjecture.
Document reference: [Q/AL 12/3 (part)]