Bethlem Museum of the Mind opened in 2015, thanks to National Lottery funding. The museum is housed within the former administration building of Bethlem Royal Hospital, formerly known as Bedlam.

The hospital was the first institution in the UK to specialise in the care of people with mental health conditions. There is still in-patient care provided at the hospital as part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. It is also the UK’s only full-time archive and museum service specialising in mental illness and includes an extensive archive, historical collections and an art collection.

The project re-housed the museum and archive in a newly refurbished existing building at the heart of the Bethlem Royal Hospital, to display their collections and increase public access to, and understanding of, mental illness.

The Museum of the Mind provides a bridge between patient care and the public, offering a space to come together, to establish trust and test ideas. The Museum now provides a space for creating and making pieces of art. The art collection consists mainly of work by artists who have, at some time, suffered from mental illness and were patients at Bethlem Hospital.

Find out more on the Bethlem website.