(Semi-) public interiority in British curative environments, 1840-1914

This essay addresses the subject of (semi)-public interiority as it was manifested in a range of British nineteenth- and early twentieth-century curative environments—namely convalescent homes, hydropathic hotels, and lunatic asylums (now referred to as psychiatric hospitals) which, in the years in question, bore a striking similarity to each other and whose founders shared the view that environments could facilitate curing. Although the focus of the essay is on their outside spaces, it proposes that a fluidity, or porousness, existed between the interiors of the buildings in question, their transitional spaces (wintergardens, balconies, terraces, and verandas in particular), and the landscaped grounds that surrounded them. This meant that it is not possible to speak of them in isolation but, rather, it is important to recognize the relationships between them and the spatial strategies that were used to form those relationships. Central to those strategies was an alignment with the aesthetic of, and the roles performed by, domesticity, particularly that associated with the English country house. Indeed, it was through the employment of that model that public interiority could be experienced by the inhabitants (whether guests or patients) of the environments in question.