Bedlam
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A scene from Hogarth's A Rake's Progress (1735) set in Bedlam, London's main hospital for the insane at the time. Sightseers, such as the two women in the background, could pay to look at the inmates chained up in their cells.
Popular name for Bethlem Royal Hospital, the earliest mental hospital in Europe. The Priory of St Mary of Bethlehem was founded in Bishopsgate, London, in 1247 and was used as a hospice by the 14th century. It has been sited in West Wickham, Kent, since 1930. It is now used as a slang word meaning chaos.
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