Can you see
that instead of laces
this shoe has leather straps
and a lock?

Some patients
at Cane Hill Mental Hospital
were locked into their shoes
to stop them
trying to take them off.

Mr Packham worked at Cane Hill hospital:

"There was the staff there
that had been there
since the place had opened really.
I mean, most of them,
all big six-footers, you know.
They hadn't got no certificates at all
in those days,
there was no nurses there
in those days,
they were all attendants.
It was more like a prison, really,
honestly."

Life for
people with mental health problems
was terrible.
They were treated appallingly
and often kept locked up.

Things only changed
when a new Act of Parliament was passed
and all staff had to train as nurses.
People began to understand
more about mental illness
and how it could be treated.
Things gradually got better.

To find out more about
Cane Hill you can visit the
Research Room to view:

*Photographs of the Hospital
*Books such as Cane Hill Hospital
The Tower of the Hill by Pam Buttrey
or Buddleia Dance on the Asylym A
Nurses Journey Through a Mental
Hospital by Stephen Burrow.

The Research Room is on the
Lower Ground Floor of the
Croydon Clocktower and is
open Tuesday-Saturday
10.30-5