carsten anker dines with the younger george dance and visits st lukes hospital for the insane

8/3/2019 Carsten Anker Dines With the Younger George Dance and Visits St Lukes Hospital for the Insane

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Carsten A n k e r D i n e s w i t h t h eYounger George Dance, a n dV i t s i t s S t Luke's Hospitalforh eI n s a n eby CHRISTINE STEVENSON

In 1792, Copenhagen's t HansHospital, or thoseafflictedby insanity includingalcoholism),enerealdisease, ndavarietyof other, ncurable,nfirmities,eceivedagiftof moneyspecificallyor tsrepair.Thirtyyears arlier tHanshadbeen describedasholding he'veryoldest,weakest,wretchedest,ndunsightliest'f theCopenhagenPoor Board'scharges,andby 1792 its buildingswere in similar hape.This giftultimately esultedn an investigationnto asylumplanning hat extended rom StPetersburgo Finsbury, herethe new St Luke'sHospitalFig.I) opened n 1787.1In 1802,members f a commissionormedeight yearsearlier o overseeSt Hans'sreconstruction ecided o repairhe oldbuildingsor theinfirmandvenereal,but tobuild new quartersor the insane.They accordingly crapped lansfor a totalreconstruction, nd one of them, the master-builder hilip Lange(1756-I805),submitteda sketch of a cylindrical sylumwith a circular entralwell. This waspowerfullynfluenced ytheexample f theso-calledNarrenturmthe fools' ower'),built n 1784at theAllgemeinesKrankenhausn Vienna, houghLangemproved nhismodel,which hadsoon attractedriticism s a nastyexercisen theneo-Gothic.2Lange'solleaguesequested imto workuphis sketchntodrawingsorpresentationto KingChristianVII (whowas,as it happened,quitemad),and at the same imeresolved o obtain reliable nd detaileddrawings' f the Narrenturm ndSt Luke's,whichtheybelievedwasstillunderconstruction.3heywouldgathermaterial boutfour otherasylums broad,but it was those n LondonandViennawhichinterestedthem firstandforemost,and it was from London hatthey got their most detailedreport.WhyStLuke's,giventhat heStHanscommissionersnew littleabout t, and hattheywerealreadynterestednough n the Narrenturmopursuetspeculiareometryfurther? he internationaleputation f itsdesignhadbeen fixedby theMImoiresurles hdpitaux de Paris (1788) by the surgeon Jacques Tenon (I724-1816), who in theearly summer of 1787 visited St Luke's among other English institutions at the behest


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156 ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY 44: 2001of his colleagues on a Paris Academie des Sciences committee entrustedwith thereplanning here of the H6tel-Dieu. Tenon was unequivocal:St Luke'sin Old StreetRoad andBethlem, in Robert Hooke's building (1674-76) in LowerMoorfields,werethe 'two best designedmentalhospitals hat we know of. .. we should considerthemasmodels'.4He sent copiesof hisbook all over Europe:one went to the CopenhagenMedicalSociety, andanother to St Luke'sLife Governor andarchitectGeorgeDancethe Younger (1741-1845), whom Tenon held in greatesteem.sIn 1802, the Danishrepresentativen London turned the assignmentover to CarstenAnker (1747-1824). From Berlin the commissioners received notes and journalcuttings about an asylum there; from Toledo, Ltibeck, Vienna, and St Petersburgdrawings or sketches too.6 But Anker, a former director of Copenhagen's RoyalFurnitureEmporium, where he had obtained English model drawings for Danishchair-makerso copy,7knew the level of detailrequired or any study,at a distance,ofthree-dimensionalobjects.A hospitalfor 300 insane is bigger than a chair,andAnkeranywaybecame an enthusiast or this hospital.In August 1803 he sent from Londonwhat he calleda summarydescriptionof St Luke's,in twenty long sheetsorganizedasitem-by-item responses to the commission's questions about its financing andorganization, and eleven sheets of drawings, now lost, along with a fifteen-pageexplanationof them that includesmore informationabout institutionalprocedures.8He also shipped a model of a cell on an inch-to-a-foot scale;a set of bedclothes('Bowlster'andblankets)andsamplesof a strait-waistcoat,handcuffs,a 'Leglock',anda 'Wristlock';and an invoice totalling?13.i8s. 6d., which includes los. 6d. 'To theSurveyor'sClarkfor his trouble in meeting Mr Anker at the Hospital' (part of theaccount is in English),and a shillingfor the manwho showed him the way to Dance'soffice.Anker explainedat length the time and trouble everyone concerned had taken toassemble the drawings (?5-15s. 6d., to the draughtsmanGeorge Pepys).9 After aprolongedsearchDance hadfailed to find even sketchesof the building,andthe entirehospitalhad to be surveyed on the commissioners'behalf (they would find, Ankerwrote, that this was done with the utmost precision).10After all this effort, it wouldhave been strange f duplicateswere not made. The drawingsof St Luke's now in SirJohn Soane's Museum include the very largesheets thatcomprisedpartof the contractset of 1782, but also relativelysmall line drawings,all pricked for transferandmanycloselyannotatedwith measurements.They fall into two groups,one on paperwith a1794 watermarkand the other, by a differentdraughtsman,with a watermark rom18oi (Fig. 2).1 Most suggestively,Anker's set included, andthe Museum now holdstwo copies of, a sheet with eight cross-sections,of which seven have the same lineindicators- that is, the letters ('LM', for example) markingthe section line on acorrespondingplan.12Yet the drawingssent to Copenhagen included items (amongthem site and basementplans)which have no equivalents among those in Soane'sMuseum now. Conversely,the 1794-watermarkgroup comprisesat least threesheetscorrespondingto nothing in the 18oi -watermark group, or Anker's. The circum-stances surrounding the Soane drawings' production remain puzzling, especially sincewe have no reason to think that anyone involved was lying when it was said that nodrawings of the hospital as it had been built could be found in 1803.


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ST LUKE'SHOSPITAL 157'St Luke'sHospital for Lunaticks',which took its name from its parish,had beenfounded in 1750. London alreadyhad a hospitalfor the insane,Bethlem ('Bedlam'),but even after Hooke's building was expanded(it had 275 cells by 1783), it was notbig enough, or so St Luke's claimed. Yet the new hospitalwas no meresupplement othe old. Its early publicationsdraw wide-ranging and specific comparisonsbetweenthe financing, medical aims, and domestic organizations of the ancient, 'royal'foundationand the new hospitalmaintainedby 'voluntary'giftsandsubscriptions.'13 nparticular,the 'Patients in this Hospital shall not be exposed to publick View'.Bethlem's Governors did not begin to restrictthe casualvisiting with which theirasylum s alwaysassociateduntil 1770,but the custom hadlong been criticized.14In one respect, these pointed contrastsdid St Luke's no favour in the long run.Historians of psychiatryhave begun to acknowledge its importance,not just as theprototypical voluntary public asylum, but as a model for specific managerialand

medicalpracticesat the provincial nstitutions founded andbuilt in Englandafter the1760s,notablythe Friends'Retreat in York (1794-96). The Retreat's architectJohnBevansandfounderWilliamTuke both madestudyvisits to StLuke's,then considered(asBevanswrote) the most 'compleat'building of its type in the country.'15Even itsdistinctive externalpatterningof lunettes the cell windows - set into blind archeswas copied at some of the institutions ater establishedunderthe terms of the CountyAsylum Act (1808).16 But it is its scandalous older sister Bethlem, to whose reputationSt Luke's made its own demure contribution,thathasalwaysattracted cholars.Thatthe (admittedlyunpicturesque)planof St Luke'sshould be publishedhere for the firsttime, as Figure2, indicates the relativeneglect into which it has fallen. And yet thiswas a hospitalwhich was soon thought to have transcendedts type: in 1847JamesElmes described t asshowing 'how fargenius may use even the plainestof materials... few buildingsin our metropolis,or perhaps n Europe, surpass his for unity andappropriatenessf style.'17The first St Luke's, in Upper Moorfields, remainsmysterious:between January1751 and March 1753 the elder George Dance (1695-1768) somehow managedtotransform it from a huddle of 'very Old' tenements to the rather handsome andsubstantialBuilding'which is known only from popularprints."8We do know thatwhen, in September1750, the General Committee of the new foundation visited its

future site together with the elder Dance, 'from thence they went and viewed theHospitall of Bethlem', on the other side of Moorfields.19 Like Bethlem, the firstStLuke's offered individual cells (the word did not yet have penal associations) or itspatients,andits successoreffectivelyreplicatedBethlem'splanning.20 Though nativeobservers ike John Howard (1726-90) did not remark on the resemblances whichperhaps ust goes to show how successfullySt Luke's had distanced itself from theother, in institutional erms),21Tenon praised he buildings n the samebreathbecausefor him they were, essentially,dentical.In a formulationof significancefor the future of their design, Tenon wrote that,unlike general hospitals ('mere auxiliary means'), asylums arein themselvesa remedy. During the period of treatment, t is essential hat the insane man orwoman should not be thwartedand, while under observation,he should be able to leave his


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158 ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY 44: 2001

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Fig.3.StLuke's ospital:allery,romA. C.Pugin& Thomasowlandson,heMicrocosmfLondonCourtesyf heWellcomenstituteibrary,ondon)cell,walkaround hegallery, o to thepromenadend akeexercise hatrelaxeshimand hatnature equires.That swhathappensnbothhospitalsor the insanen London22- for both were organizedaroundenormous galleries,which ran their full length,though interrupted(asFig. 2 shows)on each floorby the centralpavilionand its officesand stairs.Anker describedthe St Luke'sgalleriesas,simply, placeswhere the patientswalked allday,afterbeing let out of their cellsin the morningand beforebeing lockedin again in the evening. In A. C. Pugin and Thomas Rowlandson's well-knownaquatintof 1809 (Fig. 3) we are placed on the women's side of the building, at thejunction of a galleryand one of the short end wings. The gallery,stretchingoff to theright,is terminatedby an iron gate,beyondwhich were the centraloffices,andbeyondthem the men's side of the building. Bethlem used identical gates. Supplemented,weatherpermitting,by the exerciseyardsoutside, Tenon's 'promenade',the gallerieswere the main ingredientof the remedythat was the asylum.Also essential were the cells, or rather the isolation they afforded was. A littlesmaller,but higher, thanBethlem's,23St Luke'scells, unlike those at its prototype, atpoints lined both sides of the galleries:in the wings and at the ends of the galleriesimmediately adjacentto them, and at their other ends, by the central block. Thisdoubling was economical, of attendants' ime and the hospital'smoney: this was a


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160 ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY 44: 20017 Christine Stevenson, 'Paesi Scandinavi: Promozione delle Arti e dell' Industria', pp. 196-211 I in Storie delDisegnoIndustriale, ol. I, 1750-1850: L'EtM ella RivoluzioneIndustriale, d. Alessandra Ponte (Milan, 1989), onpp. 197, 208.8 Copenhagen, Stadsarkivet,vii. St. Hans Hospital. Kommissionen af27. I.1794 for Sct. Hans Hospitals NyeBygninger 1792-1804, 5. Dokumenter, 64.C. The documents in this set (henceforth cited as SA, St Hans 5,64.C) include the questionnaire, Anker's covering letter and invoice, and the 'Beskrivelse' (description) of thedrawings and model, all dated 4 August 1803. The site plan 'A', for example (see the next note) had beenlettered in English and Anker's 'Beskrivelse' provides translations and amplifications. Thus the 'Dead House,or Straw Barn' is explained: Dance had designed a mortuary, but the deceased were now kept in their cellsuntil burial, which took place very quickly.9 The drawings Anker sent from London were, 'A' (his lettering), a general site plan; B, C, D, and E,basement and ground-, first- and second-floor plans; F and G, front (south) and rear (north) elevations; H, asheet with eight sections; I, a sheet with three drawings of the wall and 'Colonnade' n front of the building; Kand L, drawings of an individual cell. SA, St Hans 5, 64.C, 'Beskrivelse'.10 'Bygmesteren kunde ikke efter lang Tids Sbgning ikke finde, end ikke, Concept-tegningerne, og den heleBygning maatte paa nyt opmaales, hvilken den Kongelige Commission vil finde at vere skeed med stbrsteN6yagtighed': SA, St Hans 5, 64.C, Anker's letter.ii Six of the seventeen sheets that originally accompanied the contract of 30 May 1782 survive. The1794-watermark group comprises nine sheets, compared to four in the 180oi-watermark group. Jill Lever'scatalogue of the Dance drawings in SirJohn Soane's Museum is expected to be published in 2003; Fig. 2shows her cat. 12 (SM, Dance 4/1/9). Jill Lever gave me a copy of her draft catalogue of the St Luke'sdrawings, and drew my attention to the Tuke-Bevans investigations mentioned below, and I am deeplygrateful for this indispensable help with the present essay.12 The other section is across the very centre of the building and so, Anker explained, needed no specialindication. He however listed his sections in an order that would be odd if they were arranged the way theyare on the Soane sheets (cat. 25, 1794 watermark [Dance 4/1/16] and cat. 26, I8oi watermark [Dance 4/I/17]), which have them in four columns. If they were, his numbering would run from the far left column tothe far right, then to the inner left and inner right columns.13 See St Luke's' many appearances (indexed) in Jonathan Andrews et al., The History of Bethlem(London,1997) which explores the ramifications of the institutional rivalry.14 St Luke's 'Rules and Orders' were freely adapted by compilers of London's historical topographies,beginning with William Maitland, TheHistory ofLondonfrom itsFoundation o thePresentTime,2 vols (London,1756), 2, p. 1315, from which I have taken this quotation. For visiting, Andrews et al., History of Bethlem,especially pp. 178-99.15 Letter from Tuke to Bevans, 2oJanuary 1794 (Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, York); see AnneDigby, Madness, Moralityand Medicine:A Study of the YorkRetreat, 1796-1914 (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 18,37-38. Jill Lever proposes linking some of the Soane drawings with the Retreat's planning (the 1794watermark is suggestive), and this cannot be ruled out, though Anne Digby reports that there is no evidencethat drawings were sent up to York, and another of Bevans's letters (26 February 1794) uses lengthydescriptions, and a couple of sketches, to explain St Luke's arrangementsinstead.16 Leonard D. Smith, 'Cure, Comfort,and Safe Custody': Public LunaticAsylums in early Nineteenth-centuryEngland(London, 1999), pp. 14-15, 33, 53, 143. Christine Stevenson, MedicineandMagnificence: ritishHospitalandAsylum Architecture66o-1815 (London, 2000), pp. 99-o100o, 101-05 explains the rationales for, and appealof, the lunettes.17 James Elmes, 'History of Architecture in Great Britain. A Brief Sketch of the Rise and Progress ofArchitecture in Great Britain', Civil Engineerand Architect'sJournal, Io (1847), pp. 166-70, 209-IO, 234-38,268-71, 300-02, 337-41, 378-83, on p. 379. See also David Watkin, 'Adam, Dance and the Expression ofCharacter in Architecture', pp. 50-54 in Adam in Context: Papers iven at the GeorgianGroupSymposium1992,ed. Giles Worsley (London, 1993), on p. 52.18 St Luke's Woodside (Muswell Hill, London), 'General Committee Book of St Luke's Hospital from Sept19th 1750 to Decr 7th 1774' (unpaginated; henceforth cited as SLW, Gen. Comm. Book 1750-1774), for 23January 1751 and 7 March 1753; my thanks to Sylvia Manning for making my day at St Luke's Woodside soinformative, and enjoyable. The most revealing view of the building is that in EnthusiasmDisplayed(c. 1755,Robert Pranker afterJohn Griffiths), reproduced by David Bindman, Hogarthand his Times: SeriousComedy


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ST LUKE'S HOSPITAL 161(London, 1997), p. 123, cat. 65, though the fenestration differsa little from that shown in other prints. On thisbuilding, see C. N. French, The Storyof St Luke's Hospital (London, 1951), pp. 9-13 (who was mistaken inbelieving that it replacedJohn Wesley's 'Foundery' meeting-house, which was adjacent) and Dorothy Stroud,GeorgeDance,Architect 741-1825 (London, 1971), pp. 49-50.19 SLW, Gen. Comm. Book 1750-1774, for 26 September 1750.20 No plan of Hooke's building has survived, but this is a safe conclusion. For Bethlem's architecture, seeAndrews et al., History of Bethlem,pp. 230-59; on the resemblance, p. 250. For the first St Luke's cells, SLW,Gen. Comm. Book 1750-1774, for 8 May 1754, for example, when ten beds plus bedding were ordered forthe 'Ten Cells that are fitted up for Uncured Patients'.21 Howard did describe both as 'three long galleries and wings', with their cells, which at Bethlem were 'veryproperly' on one side of the galleries only. An Accountof thePrincipalLazarettos n Europe... (London, 1789),pp. 139-40.22 Tenon, Memoirs,p. 197; see also pp. 17, 28.23 According to Howard, Account,p. 139, Bethlem's cells were I2 ft x 8 ft IO in, and I2 ft IO in high; StLuke's, 10 ft 4 in x 8 ft, and 13 ft 3 in high.24 SA, St Hans 5, 64.C, 'Beskrivelse' ('Jerngitterverk til Luft og Sikkerhed'); Tenon,.]ournal, pp. 44-45 ('Au-dessus de la porte sont des barreaux de fer, avec treillage de fer mis en dedans pour 6viter que les fous sependent, ce qui est arrive dans certains h6pitaux.')25 'Hr Dance spiste hos mig, og kort efter at have igentaget min ... Undskyldning. ., saget han mig, dogmed sand Verdighed, at han onske nok at eje den danske Vitruvius'. SA, St Hans 5, 64.C, Anker's letter. Therequest does not seem to have been carried out.26 In 1807, his house near Copenhagen, then under siege, was ordered untouched by British officers who 'nolonger felt themselves on hostile ground' after consuming his beef, ale, porter, and Cheshire cheese: JensWolff, Sketcheson a Tourto Copenhagen hroughNorwayand Sweden(London, 1814), pp. 174-75.

carsten anker dines with the younger george dance and visits st lukes hospital for the insane

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