Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane

Broadmoor Hospital
West London Mental Health NHS Trust
Broadmoor in 2006
Shown in Berkshire
Geography
Location	Crowthorne, Berkshire, England
Coordinates	51°22′09″N 00°46′43″W / 51.36917°N 0.77861°W / 51.36917; -0.77861
Organisation
Care system	NHS
Hospital type	Psychiatric
Services
Emergency department	No
Beds	284
History
Founded	1863
Links
Website	Official website
Lists	Hospitals in England

Broadmoor Hospital is a high-security psychiatric hospital at Crowthorne in Berkshire, England. It is the best known and oldest of the three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, the other two being Ashworth Hospital near Liverpool and Rampton Secure Hospital in Nottinghamshire.

The Broadmoor complex houses about 210 patients, all of whom are men since the female service closed in September 2007, with most of the women moving to a new service in Southall and the remainder moving to Rampton and elsewhere. At any one time there are also approximately 36 patients on trial leave at other units. Most of the patients there have been diagnosed with severe mental illness; many also have schizophrenia and personality disorders. Most have either been convicted of serious crimes, or been found unfit to plead in a trial for such crimes. The average stay is six years, but this figure is skewed by a few patients who have stayed for over 30 years; most patients stay for considerably less time.

The hospital's catchment area consists of four National Health Service regions: London, Eastern, South East and South West.

The hospital was first known as the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. It was built to a design by Sir Joshua Jebb, an officer of the Corps of Royal Engineers, and covered 53 acres (210,000 square metres) within its secure perimeter. The first patient was a female admitted for infanticide on 27 May 1863. Notes described her as being 'feeble minded;' it has been suggested by an analysis of notes that she was most likely also suffering from congenital syphilis. The first male patients arrived on 27 February 1864. The original building plan of five blocks for men and one for women was completed in 1868. A further male block was built in 1902.

Due to overcrowding at Broadmoor, a branch asylum was constructed at Rampton and opened in 1912. Rampton was closed as a branch asylum at the end of 1919 and reopened as an institution for "mental defectives" rather than lunatics. During World War I Broadmoor's block 1 was also used as a Prisoner-of-war camp, called Crowthorne War Hospital for mentally ill German soldiers.