Thousands of City commuters arrive each day at Liverpool Street Station but few will be aware of the sad and painful past associated with this part of the City. This was the original site of Bethlem Hospital where human beings experienced poverty, pain and misery. It was a grim existence for the under-class of London; little wonder that the name Bedlam - a curruption of Bethlem - and its association with madness and mental illness has remained with us.
The Hospital was part of the Priory of St Mary of Bethlehem in the 14th century and was known to treat 'distracted patients'. They were kept chained to the wall with leg and ankle irons and ducked in cold water or whipped when violent. The City Corporation took it over as a lunatic asylum in the 16th century before it finally moved in the 17th century to Moorfields.
But the poverty and misery remained in the area. A workhouse was built close-by in Bishopsgate where children under-10 worked spinning wool for 12 hours a day, six days a week. The grim surroundings were also home for beggars and thieves as well as those Londoners who were at the very bottom of the social scale.
It existed until the 1870s and one of the few reminders of this grim past is the tomb of Sir William Rawlins, a City Sheriff, in the churchyard of St.Botolphs without Bishopsgate. (pictured). He was the workhouse treasurer for many years in the early 19th century.
So next time you arrive or leave Liverpool Street Station, think of the thousands who were going nowhere.
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