A PLAQUE has been unveiled in memory of a Victorian asylum which later became an infamous psychiatric hospital.

Powick Hospital, formerly the Worcester County and City Lunatic Asylum, closed in 1989 and was finally torn down in the 1990s.

The hospital was the source of a controversial World in Action documentary in 1968.

The plaque has been fitted to the side of The Crown pub, in Malvern Road, near to the site of the old asylum, in Hospital Lane, Powick.

About 35 people, including former hospital employees and patients' relatives, gathered to see the plaque for the first time on Tuesday, June 27.

Ken Crump, a former nurse at the hospital, of Christine Avenue, Rushwick, Worcester, said: "Some people would say it's better forgotten.

"When I was child living in St John's [Worcester] people used to say you 'play up and you will be sent to Powick'.

"It was a huge place, I started in 1963. Anyone with mental health problems who lived in South Worcestershire went there.

"It officially closed in March 1989. It closed because the Government wanted to close down big mental hospitals, they were replaced by units.

"I thought for a long time we should have some recognition. There was nothing to say there was a hospital here."

The 75-year-old said the hospital suffered from a shortage of funds before it was taken over by the NHS.

"You were reliant on contributions. The Victorians were great entrepreneurs. They decided every county in England should have a mental hospital," he said.

The only buildings still standing on the site are the old medical superintendent's house and a red brick building called White Chimneys.

The original asylum first opened in 1852.

The new plaque also celebrates the role of famed Worcester composer Edward Elgar, who led the band at the asylum from 1879 to 1884.

At the time, music was considered to be therapeutic for mental health patients.