However, the judge cleared him on the grounds of insanity and he was locked up in Bedlam - where he died nine years later. The comments below have not been moderated. Haunting photographs show the women who attended the infamous Bethlem Royal Hospital where patients were 'treated' by being spun round in chairs in front of paying punters. She approached the King in London while holding a dessert knife and made two lunges at his chest. with the evidence of “trephined skulls.”In the ancient world cultures, a well-known belief was that mental illness was “the result of supernatural phenomena”; this included phenomena from “demonic possession” to “sorcery” and “the evil eye”. A treatment, invented by Erasmus Darwin - grandfather to Charles - called rotational therapy involved putting a patient in a chair suspended in the air and then spun round for a few hours. Women could be send here for treatment just for showing sexual desire. In the mid-1800s Bedlam was something of a tourist attraction for the wealthy, who could pay a shilling for entry to walk around and look at the patients, as if it were a zoo, This black and white photograph shows the exterior of Bethlem Royal Hospital in London back in 1926 when it moved to St George's Fields in Southwark, which is now the site of the Imperial War Museum, The historical hospital is now based at Monks Orchard in West Wickham, Bromley, pictured, after it moved there from Southwark in 1930, A treatment, invented by Erasmus Darwin (pictured) called rotational therapy, involved putting a patient in a chair before spinning them around. Bloodletting and leech therapy were also common treatments. Wealthy patrons would often pay a shilling to gawp at the unfortunately souls locked in the asylum. Pictured right is a patient in 1857, known only as H.B., who had been diagnosed with 'chronic mania'. In 1728, James Monro became Bethlem's chief physician, initiating a Monro family dynasty that lasted for roughly four generations. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to Bedlam. A notorious aspect of Bethlem was its availability to public. Asylums like this housed some of the most deranged and dangerous criminals in America. St Luke’s treated its patients through individual diagnosis and care, the belief being that there were many forms of mental illness and not just one. Perhaps most surprising of all was that St Luke’s would not admit paying visitors, a practice that Bethlem had allowed for centuries. Although it is sometimes thought to have treated its patients cruelly, most were free to walk around the grounds, and conditions were not much worse than the average home of the period. Bethlem moved against in 1815, to St George's Fields in Southwark, which is now the site of the Imperial War Museum. Most of the patients at the London asylum, better known as Bedlam, were diagnosed with acute mania and some arrived after killing people. In the 18th and 19th centuries patients were dunked in cold baths, starved and beaten. “It was hard but worth it,” wrote Koehler. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Although conditions at Bedlam are often described as 'harrowing' during the 1800s, historians have claimed they were not much worse than a typical Victorian home and patients were free to walk around the grounds, These two well-dressed male patients, left and right, were also part of the group to be photographed by Henry Hering to see if their conditions could be analysed via their facial expressions. She was apprehended and was declared insane and sent to Bedlam - where she later died. During this period Bedlam was located in St George's Fields in Southwark, which is now the site of the Imperial War Museum. Thanks :) The chair is then spun by an orderly, the speed and duration dictated by a doctor. Edward Oxford: Mr Oxford was the first of eight people who tried to kill Queen Victoria in 1840. Pictured left is William Sellers in 1856, when he was being treated for mania for killing his mother. Patients were often chained up to walls and were sometimes starved to death. 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