Maudsley Hospital
The Maudsley Hospital in Denmark Hill, Camberwell, South London is unique as a psychiatric hospital in that it was always intended to be a centre of treatment and research rather than confinement and "asylum".
Now part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust (SLaM) the hospital derives its origins from 1907, when Dr Henry Maudsley offered London County Council £30,000 (subsequently increased to £40,000) to help found a new mental hospital that would:
- be exclusively for early and acute cases,
- have an out-patients' clinic,
- provide for teaching and research.
World War I intervened and the Hospital was not actually opened until 1923, but it is notable that a specific Act of Parliament had to be obtained (1915) to allow the institution to accept voluntary patients.
The Maudsley today continues to offer in-patient and community mental health care to local people in Southwark and Lambeth and nationally across the UK. Sharing a site with the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London it is also a major contributor to both psychiatric research and the training of nursing, medical and psychology staff in psychiatry. As part of SLaM it also enjoys close links with Bethlem Royal Hospital - the original "Bedlam".