You may be aware that the Hospital of St Mary of Bethlehem in London served from the 1377 as a lunatic asylum and is used today for people with mental illness. The word bedlam, used to describe a place of uproar and confusion, derives from the behaviour of the inmates of this institution and others like it in the early centuries.
I cannot find how or when the Bedlam Walls or the Bedlam Walls Point along the Derwent River were named. Perhaps the quarrying and fertiliser production in a comparatively isolated location amounted to sheer madness? Does anyone know?
Walking the Derwent River 
Friend Ma offered the following in a private email to me: “Evidently from memory about 50 convicts escapes across the river and lived in the caves there. Maybe it became bedlam!! The only other thing i can think of is geological connections. Surely somewhere in the nomenclature board they have a history of the naming.”Perhaps someone who has time can research more information. Any takers?
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