Glenside Hospital Museum

Glenside Hospital Museum is located in Bristol within the grounds of the old hospital. The Museum aims to inform, educate and de-stigmatise mental illness and learning difficulties.

The Museum is housed in the original hospital chapel, a Grade II listed building.

It is open free to the public every Wednesday and Saturday morning from 10.00am–12.30pm.

If you would like to come on a different day, it is possible to arrange for the museum to be open by appointment. Telephone 0117 965 2829.

Glenside Hospital Museum has an extensive collection showing the changes and development in the treatment of mental health from 1860s to the late 20th century. This important collection paints a vivid picture of the life of patients and staff in the former Glenside Hospital and an insight into the institutions run for the care of people with disabilities and learning difficulties.

Although the museum tackles difficult subject matter, there is something to interest everyone, from straitjackets and a padded cell, to Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) machines, to ringing the church bell. We also house an impressive local fossil collection, including a rare horse tooth from 150 million years ago.

During the First World War, from 1915- 1918, the hospital became Beaufort War Hospital, one of many hospitals receiving wounded soldiers from the front. It was here the artist Stanley Spencer was a medical orderly. Many of his paintings at Sandham Memorial Chapel at Burghclere, near Newbury depict of life at Beaufort War Hospital.

Glenside Hospital had some famous visitors including the film star Cary Grant and Princess Anne. The Museum is often featured on television and radio, and in 2011 Ruby Wax visited The Museum as part of her television series on the treatment of mental health. Visitors come from all over the world.