Saint Bartholomew’s Hospital

Saint Bartholomew’s Hospital, oldest hospital in London. It lies just southeast of the Central Markets in the Smithfield area of the City of London. It was founded in 1123 by the Augustinian monk Rahere, who also founded the adjacent priory (the surviving part of which is now the church of Saint Bartholomew-the-Great). In 1381 Wat Tyler, the leader of the Peasant’s Revolt, was brought to the hospital for treatment of his wounds, but soldiers removed him and executed him outside.

Augustinian nuns and brethren initially supervised treatments in the hospital, though in 1549 three lay surgeons were appointed. Saint Bartholomew’s continued to function after the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s, but it faced financial difficulties and was reestablished by King Henry VIII in 1544. In the early 17th century the physician William Harvey, the discoverer of the nature of the circulation of blood, oversaw the treatment of patients at the hospital, which at that time had a capacity of 200 beds and a medical staff of three surgeons, an apothecary, and a number of Augustinian nuns.

From 1730 to 1759 the hospital was rebuilt. The artist William Hogarth, who was elected a governor of the institution in 1735, adorned the main staircase with the murals The Good Samaritan and Pool of Bethesda. James Paget, known as the founder of pathology, became a surgeon there in the mid-19th century. The hospital was greatly expanded during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Its south block was replaced in 1937, and repairs were made to several areas following the air raids of World War II. There were major administrative changes in 1948, when the hospital came under the control of the National Health Service, and in 1974, when it joined the City and Hackney Health District.

Medical students attended the hospital from at least 1662. Saint Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College, located a short distance to the north of the hospital proper, was merged, along with the Royal London Hospital Medical College, into Queen Mary and Westfield College (founded 1887) in 1995.