MIND OVER MATTER: A Study Of The Country's Threatened lunatic asylums - (First published, 1995, now out-of-print)
Extremely rare (the last copy I saw was on sale for £95.00), this book was originally produced in response to the NHS' selling-off of the country's former asylums from the early 80's onwards, and we all know the rest of the story.
This incredible book documents 106 of them in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands, and formed much of the basis of awareness of the shameful treatment most of these buildings received, and are still receiving, was also a primary study-point for Simon Cornwell's seminal site/personal explorations.
With at least a page each (sometimes more) dedicated to the building, history, current state and proposed future of each asylum, many B&W photographs (both historical and contemporary), an 8-page introduction as well as a 6-page essay on the conversion of Royal Holloway Asylum, AND a 6-page essay by esteemed asylum historian Jeremy Taylor, this is a 152 page book.
Never to be re-published (the "current" information is, of course, now 15yrs out of date), this is an often painful trip back to when the future of many of these wonderful buildings contained a few rays of hope, and anyone with a knowledge of many of their recent fates will find this quite difficult to take lying down.
Asylums featured include: High Royds, Exminster, Park Prewitt, Tone Vale, Deva, Whittingham, Claybury, Friern, Brookwood, Cane Hill, West Park, Hellingly, Royal Earlswood, Royal Holloway, Springfield, Woodilee and many more.
A few excerpts.
Copies available from me on DVD as a PDF for £6 UK postpaid. Since it's never going to be re-published as it was a one-off response to the situation at the time, cost me £95 and took an absolute age to scan (plus I don't know how I'm going to pay next month's rent at the moment), I hope that seems reasonable
The scans aren't perfect but are perfectly readable (they are higher res than here of course), as you can see. PM for details.
Extremely rare (the last copy I saw was on sale for £95.00), this book was originally produced in response to the NHS' selling-off of the country's former asylums from the early 80's onwards, and we all know the rest of the story.
This incredible book documents 106 of them in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands, and formed much of the basis of awareness of the shameful treatment most of these buildings received, and are still receiving, was also a primary study-point for Simon Cornwell's seminal site/personal explorations.
With at least a page each (sometimes more) dedicated to the building, history, current state and proposed future of each asylum, many B&W photographs (both historical and contemporary), an 8-page introduction as well as a 6-page essay on the conversion of Royal Holloway Asylum, AND a 6-page essay by esteemed asylum historian Jeremy Taylor, this is a 152 page book.
Never to be re-published (the "current" information is, of course, now 15yrs out of date), this is an often painful trip back to when the future of many of these wonderful buildings contained a few rays of hope, and anyone with a knowledge of many of their recent fates will find this quite difficult to take lying down.
Asylums featured include: High Royds, Exminster, Park Prewitt, Tone Vale, Deva, Whittingham, Claybury, Friern, Brookwood, Cane Hill, West Park, Hellingly, Royal Earlswood, Royal Holloway, Springfield, Woodilee and many more.
A few excerpts.
Copies available from me on DVD as a PDF for £6 UK postpaid. Since it's never going to be re-published as it was a one-off response to the situation at the time, cost me £95 and took an absolute age to scan (plus I don't know how I'm going to pay next month's rent at the moment), I hope that seems reasonable
The scans aren't perfect but are perfectly readable (they are higher res than here of course), as you can see. PM for details.
