Beachbum. Most of the old Workhouses were renamed Asylums before becoming Hospitals. I expect it was that name that sent shivers up your Grandparents' spines, for Asylum was always associated with Lunatic. ie madman/woman. Some were even renamed as Lunatic Asylum(e.g. Bexleyheath) before a more subtle name was used. I used to visit the Hospital Engineer at Bexley & there were plans in picture frames all along the corridor leading to his office from the earliest date, as Workhouse, through Lunatic Asylum, Asylum, Mental Institute,( a couple that I've forgotten), to just Hospital. It's really only in recent times that mental illness, in all its forms has become a complete department on its own. And of course is very much ongoing with the results of lockdown affecting many of the younger generation. We oldies were lucky in that respect.
