[1] Opened in 2015, the museum is housed in an Art Deco building shared with the Bethlem Gallery, which hosts exhibitions of contemporary artists who are current or former patients.

The museum's displays include work by artists who have suffered from mental health problems, such as former patients William Kurelek, Richard Dadd and Louis Wain.

Another work is a pair of statues by Caius Gabriel Cibber known as Raving and Melancholy Madness, from the gates of the 17th century Bethlem Hospital.

The archives are open for inspection by appointment, subject to the laws of confidentiality governing recent patient records.

The inaugural temporary exhibition was Bryan Charnley: the Art of Schizophrenia, a monographic show on the artist (and former Bethlem patient) Bryan Charnley.