The museum was founded by Dr Donal Felix Mary Early, a consultant psychiatrist at Glenside Hospital during the 1980's. Dr Early, Dennis Griffiths and volunteers began collecting artifacts during this time, and placing them into storage. After some time, the hospital granted the use of the balcony overlooking the dining hall at Glenside. The collection gradually built up, as people donated artifacts to the museum.

 When the Hospital closed in 1994, the use of the derelict chapel was given to the Museum. The chapel was in a very poor state of disrepair, all of the stained glass windows were boarded up, and the interior of the chapel had become home to pigeons, and squirrels. The volunteers set to work scrubbing the floors, and removing the pews, they removed the boards from the windows, so that they could be seen once again. The museum gradually developed with Dr Early as the guiding light, forming the exhibits, and telling the story of the Hospital.

The volunteers were saddened when Dr Early was robbed of his power of speech due to a stroke. With the help of Dr Peter Carpenter, Dr Early's dream of publishing a book depicting the history of Glenside Hospital was finally realized, shortly before his death in 2004. The 'Lunatic Pauper Palace' is on sale in the museum as well as in our 'Publications' section of the website.

The museum has a wide range of artifacts and images from the life of Glenside and of the local Learning Disability Hospitals of the Stoke Park Group and the Burden Neurological Institution.

The Chancel is used for temporary exhibitions and for the sketches of Dennis Reed, an accomplished artist who painted life in Glenside from the inside, in the 1950's.

 Please note: The times shown on the banner in the picture are incorrect, please refer to the 'Visit Us' section for the correct times.