The Lewes Road Hospital, which opened at 101 Round Hill Crescent in 1905, was run by Dr Helen Boyle alongside a dispensary for woman and children, which had opened in Elm Grove in 1899.
The hospital provided inpatient care for up to 10 female patients suffering from 'serious nervous breakdown', which today may be described as a ‘mental health crisis’ or period of intense emotional or mental distress. Since the 18th century the term ‘nervous breakdown’ was used to describe a disease of the nerves or nervous system, rather than of the mind. This allowed patients to avoid the stigma of mental illness and may have prevented admissions to 'lunatic asylums'. Symptoms were varied and included pain, fatigue, weakness, headaches, as well as feelings of hopelessness, inadequacy, or lack of pleasure in life. Treatments included 'nerve tonics' or a range of therapies for those who could afford it.
Patients at the Lewes Road Hospital could not afford an expensive 'rest-cure', a treatment which involved bed rest and isolation, often with care by a dedicated nurse. Dr Boyle's pioneering treatment included rest but also extended to music, massage, sea-bathing, and walks.
In 1912 the hospital moved to larger premises in Hove. A commemorative plaque was unveiled at 101 Round Hill Crescent in 2022.
Sources: Brighton and Hove Museums, ‘1905 Annual Report of the Lewes Road Hospital & Dispensary for Women and Children’, Brighton and Hove Museums website, accessed 19/03/2025.
Cleveland Clinic, ‘Nervous Breakdown’, Cleveland Clinic website, accessed 19/03/2025.
Peskett, Louise (2015), ‘Life Saver for Brighton’s Poor Women’, historywomenbrighton website, accessed 19/03/2025.
Reeves, Carole (2012), ‘Nervous Disease in Late Eighteenth Century Britain: The Reality of a Fashionable Disorder / Desperate Housewives, Neuroses and the Domestic Environment, 1945–1970’, Annals of Science, 71(4), 592–595, accessed online 19/03/2025.
Science Museum, ‘From Nerves to Neuroses’, Science Museum website, accessed 19/03/2025.
Wadsworth, Jo (2022), ‘UK’s first mental health hospital for poor women commemorated with blue plaque’, Brighton and Hove News website, accessed 19/03/2025.
This is part of the Job: 2K/32602 101 Round Hill Crescent, Brighton; within the Volume: VF000603 Women's History Month; within the Series: HEC01/144 Women's History Month; within the Collection: HEC01 Historic England
© Historic England Archive
Photographer: Davies, James O: Historic England
Terraced House, Hospital, Women's History, Health And Welfare
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