The purpose of this research is to investigate 19th-century sanitary policing politics to understand the confinement of mentally ill bodies in urban space. This research extends the range of documented mental health experiences and insights in the field of asylum geographies, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the asylum geographies specific to Glasgow. In turn, this enables a more accurate assessment of the operation and function of the Glasgow Lunatic Asylum. The asylum solution for urban squalor has been explored in this study through qualitative research by consulting a range of archival collections, investigating specifically the asylum geographies of the Glasgow Lunatic Asylum. This research concludes that the construction and operation of the asylum was an extension of sanitary policing strategies centred around urban improvement, rather than a philanthropic response to the treatment of mental illness.