Bethlem Royal Hospital
Bethlem Royal Hospital was founded in 1247 as a general hospital to benefit the church. Making it the oldest documented mental institution. It was not originally intended as an asylum for the clinically insane. Bethlem gradually changed from simply helping the needy into being an asylum that held the madness that resided in London. According to Simon Cross et al., in their article "Bedlam in Mind: Seeing and Reading Historical Images of Madness," madness was fantasized about and required a place to come to life. Hence, Bedlam.
Works Cited:
Cross, S. (2012). Bedlam in mind: Seeing and reading historical images of madness. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 15(1), 19-34. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549411424949