Leather belt with keys, used by State Registered Mental Nurse

Leather belt, with keyring attached, used by State Registered Mental Nurse on a psychiatric ward at Farnborough Hospital, later the Princess Royal University Hospital, in Kent, England, England, mid 20th century

Security and practicality lie behind the design of this sturdy leather belt with attached keyring and keys. It was once used on a psychiatric ward at Farnborough Hospital, later the Princess Royal University Hospital, in Kent, England. The key ring is connected to the wearers belt via a soldered metal bracket and there is also a metal loop in the middle of the belt over which the keyring cannot pass. Features that ensured the keys could not be snatched from the belt by a patient.

The belt and keys were worn by a State Registered Mental Nurse and used between around 1940 to 1970, within a system built around the large public mental hospitals that had largely been established in Britain from the 19th century onwards. Such institutions still defined psychiatric care after the Second World War and the emergence of the National Health Service. But by this point in the 20th Century, these hospitals were very much government-regulated organisations unlike many of the original ‘asylums’ of the previous century. The staff had to meet professional standards, but the day to day administration of such hospitals was characterised by a strong emphasis on regulation and security – which impinged on the lives of staff as well as patients. To a visitor, parts of such institutions could resemble a prison rather than a hospital.