Between the Asylum and the Workhouse: Mental Illness and the Victorian Poor Law

Before the 19th century, it was customary for people suffering from mental health conditions and for the intellectually disabled to be accommodated in private licensed houses. This situation started to shift with the 1808 Asylum Act, when the public asylum began to develop. The 1845 Lunacy Act and County Asylums Act extended this development, making pauper asylums compulsory for each county. This important article, written for the Disability History competition 24/25, sheds light on the interesting fact that, despite public asylums were already in place, paupers still found themselves institutionalised, in the majority of the cases, in workhouses.
AUTHOR: OLIVIA BOYLE