Thank you, Ed Brandon, NetGalley, and Pen & Sword Publishing for the opportunity to read this book. This book releases tomorrow, July 30th, 2022.

Trigger Warnings: Mental health discrimination, poverty, abuse

I have always been curious about mental health history as it is still very much stigmatized today. England has some of the most notorious mental health hospitals like Bedlam. I was very anxious to read A History of London County Asylums & Mental Hospitals by Ed Brandon. I am a huge fan of Anne Lee Huber’s Lady Darby Mystery series where the main character’s deceased husband was an anatomist and was known for his nefarious ways of getting dead bodies to study. I love how her stories really tackle mental health issues and shine a light on the atrocities committed by those in power who did not know or even want to understand mental health issues. So when I picked up this book, I was hoping to read about the hospitals and what they did and bring justice to the victims. This book has little to do with the patients and mainly a general history of Hanwell (St Bernard’s), Colney Hatch (Friern), Banstead, Cane Hill, Claybury, Bexley, Manor, Horton, St Ebba’s, Long Grove, and West Park

This book did have its moments like how it discussed how views on mental illness changed with King George III. There is even a portion of the book where it talks about the original “Jack the Ripper” suspects who were committed to an asylum. But I would say more than half of this book is mainly about the different architecture and floorplans of the major hospitals. The other parts give a brief history of the doctors. But the author tries to talk about the positives and the negatives.—So it really wasn’t what I was expecting. However, if readers are into architecture, this is the book for you.