Perhaps is was a strange choice of activity to defy last Sunday’s rare winter sun with a visit to Bedlam at The Old Vic Tunnels. This year’s show (which is Lazarides Gallery’s third successful year at hosting an event here) is inspired by ‘Bethlem’; Victorian London’s hospital for the treatment of mental illness.

And it was a little mad. For much of it I was rather moved. Not to tears, more intrigued, silenced, dizzy, repulsed, embarrassed. But there were several pieces that were more angst than lunacy. One noisy, attention-seeking sculpture consisted of a suspended sack of mobile phones. I’m sure this had a lot to do with the show’s sponsor, HTC, who had requested the beautiful vaulted entrance hall be filled with budget green branded balloons (“Sally I’ve got some of them balloons left over from the Corporate event in Hull last week, shall we use them at that art thingy in London?”). I’m sure a girl in my GCSE art class made something similar out of circuit boards and PVA and called it “Technological Strangulation”.

My other gripe was the Disney Haunted House style drone of music that followed you through the tunnels. We should have been left in silence. My friend said it was the smell that was most stifling. And in the rancid rooms of London’s underground that’s a trick and treat Lazarides were given for free.

Bedlam is free (but you should book your time slot). It runs from 9 October to 21 October 2012.