Glenside Hospital Museum

The museum began when Dr Donal Early, a consultant psychiatrist at Glenside gathered objects and documents from the hospital (and beyond). This collection was displayed on the balcony in the dining room of the hospital from 1984.

The Chapel

Given to the museum for a peppercorn rent when the hospital closed in 1994, the chapel was derelict and boarded up. Volunteers made it habitable, and moved the artefacts to their new home, and it was fully restored in 2010.

Glenside's history

Aiming to inform and educate about the history of the treatment of mental illness from the mid 19th century, the museum has collected over 60 interviews from people who lived and worked there. There are also artefacts, images, and data from the Bristol Asylum and psychiatric hospital and the Stoke Park Colony of Hospitals, providing insights into how people experiencing mental health problems were cared for during that time.

Military Hospital

The museum has also collected photographs, postcards and artefacts from the period during the First World War when the building was converted into Beaufort War Hospital. Artist Stanley Spencer was an orderly at the hospital during this time and later depicted scenes of life there in his works at Sandham Memorial Chapel.