"The Palace of a Prince": the Archaeology of Lunatic Asylum Architecture, Reform and Management in England and Ireland, c.1815-c.1855.

Abstract

Pauper lunatic asylums are considered to be institutions of order and incarceration, within which the practice of psychiatry was refined. The literature on lunatic asylums is broad and multidisciplinary, focusing primarily on psychiatric treatment, patient experiences and individual doctors or managers. Where the architecture of asylums is addressed, it has largely been within the context of other large scale reform institutions such as prisons or workhouses. This research utilises archaeological approaches to landscape, built heritage and material culture to consider the dichotomy between reform ideals and practical management in lunatic asylums during the first half of the nineteenth century. Individual case studies from Dublin, Laois and Wakefield form the focus of this research. The three primary themes of the research are moral management, surveillance and spatial organisation, and the administration and running of the asylum. These themes have been chosen due to their high representation in the documentary history and historiography, despite the dearth and sometimes anomalous nature, of sources and material for their practice in the record. This thesis proposes a move away from the study of asylums as medical or clinical spaces, and approaches asylum buildings as central to social movement and interactions. Asylums are studied separately from other contemporaneous institutions, due to the care-centred reforms written into the architecture and management practice. The first section looks at how asylum reform and management ideals were translated in practice from c.1800. The success of reform is gauged through reflection of the aims of the reformers, and the literature produced in support of their ideas. This is contrasted with documentary and material evidence, concluding that while reform ideals played a large part in the planning and development of asylums, the practical application of those principals were not readily realised. The second section looks at asylum architecture, with a view to building on established work on asylum architecture and to determine the practical considerations of architects and other authorities in the planning of asylum buildings. Surveillance, as a prominent feature in writing on asylum architecture, is treated with particular regard to the application of Bentham's panopticon in cell-block architecture. The realisation of the panopticon is studied through maps and plans. The final chapter looks at specific components of asylum architecture which articulated and facilitated the management and administration of the asylums, in particular the transitional spaces of the gate lodge and the administration block. Commonalities between workhouses, prisons, and domestic architecture will be directly addressed in this chapter. The buildings will be considered in their role as occupational and residential spaces and as proving grounds for governmental reforms, political statements and broader attitudes towards the poor in the mid-nineteenth century. This thesis contributes to the existing literature on asylum management and construction, by considering the historical documentary sources in consultation with the material culture and architecture. Through a detailed study of the planning, architecture and practical management of the buildings, this thesis views lunatic asylums as significant contributors to Georgian urban reform and as public institutions of care, rather than punitive or carceral space.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2013
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Eleanor Casella (Supervisor) & Julie-Marie Strange (Supervisor)