Bringing Down The Asylum Walls: understanding freedom and control in an Irish institutional building

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology on the Island of Ireland: New Perspectives" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The Victorian asylum is perhaps irrevocably associated in the popular imagination with high walls, bars and physical restraint, but such markers of the asylum as carceral space began to jar uncomfortably with ideals of patient liberty as the 19th century came to a close. Purdysburn, near Belfast, was an attempt at something new in Ireland. Buildings were distributed informally around the estate in the manner of a village or suburban settlement and visible boundaries and markers of restraint were minimised. Despite the attempt to create an environment that was open and ‘free’, the buildings and spaces of Purdysburn show a concern with more subtle attempts to manipulate patient movements and patient control over the spaces they inhabited. This presentation will contend that material and spatial i.e. archaeological, evidence gives an important insight into issues of freedom and control at the asylum that is not available from written sources alone.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• Historical Archaeology on the Island of Ireland: New Perspectives

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 437