St Bartholomew's Hospital
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The King Henry VIII Gate at Barts, which was constructed in 1702. Note Henry VIII above the gate |
St Bartholomew's Hospital, also known as
Barts, is a hospital in
Smithfield in the
City of London,
England. It was founded in
1123 by Raherus or Rahere (died
1144, and entombed in the nearby
priory church of
St Bartholomew-the-Great), a favourite courtier of King
Henry I. Following the
dissolution of the monasteries which, although did not affect the running of Barts as a hospital, left in it a precarious position by removing its only income, it was refounded by
Henry VIII in December
1546, on the signing of an agreement granting the hospital to the
City of London, which was reaffirmed in the
Letters Patent of January
1547 endowing it with properties and income. The hospital became legally known as the "House of the Poore in West Smithfield in the suburbs of the City of London of Henry VIII's Foundation", although the title was never used by the general public. Upon the foundation of the
National Health Service in
1948, it officially became known as St. Bartholomew's Hospital.
It is the oldest surviving hospital in England and has an important current role as well as a long history and architecturally important buildings. The
Henry VIII entrance to the hospital shown in the photograph is still the main public entrance; the statue of Henry VIII is the only public statue of him in London.
St Bartholomew's Hospital has existed on the same site for almost 900 years, surviving both the
Great Fire of London and
The Blitz. Its
museum, which is open Tuesdays to Fridays each week, shows how medical care has developed over this time and explains the history of the hospital. Part-way around the exhibition is a door which opens on to the hospital's official entrance hall. On the walls of the staircase are two stunning
murals painted by
William Hogarth,
The Pool of Bethesda (
1736) and
The Good Samaritan (
1737). These are worth a visit in their own right but can only be seen at close quarters on Friday afternoons. Hogarth was so outraged by the news that the hospital was commissioning art from
Italian painters that he insisted on doing these murals free of charge, as a demonstration that
English painting was equal to the task.
The Pool of Bethesda is of particular medical interest, as it depicts a scene in which
Christ cures the sick: display material on the first floor speculates in modern medical terms about the ailments from which Christ's patients in the painting are suffering.
The room to which the staircase leads is the hospital's Great Hall, a striking double-height room in
Baroque style. Although there are a few paintings inside the Great Hall, nearly all are on movable stands: the walls themselves are mostly given over to the display of the very many large, painted plaques which list, in detail, the sums of money given to the hospital by its benefactors. These make diverting reading: the visitor should note that some of the amounts, which are expressed in pounds, shillings and pence, are odd because they are the remains of an estate after all other bequests have been settled; others look strange because they were given as round amounts of
guineas, a guinea being twenty-one
shillings (
£1.05 in
decimal currency). When translated into pounds and shillings these give some odd-looking results: for example fifty-five guineas would be listed as £57 15/â€".
The Great Hall is part of a building which forms one side of the hospital's central square.
As of 2003, this area is the site of some building work as the hospital is redeveloped (see below), but the work is masked from the main square by large murals and the overall effect is thus not too badly diminished.
Interestingly, Barts is unique amongst
English hospitals, being a
parish in its own right. The
Anglican parish church of
St Bartholomew-the-Less is the only survivor of Bart's original five chapels, which failed to survive the
dissolution of the monasteries by King Henry VIII. The church has a
15th century tower and vestry, and its links to the hospital can be seen not only in its early-
20th century stained glass window of a nurse, a gift of the
Worshipful Company of Glaziers, but also in the plaques and commemerations that adorn the inside of the building.
Throughout the whole of the
19th century, the Hardwick family were major benefactors of the hospital.
Thomas Hardwick Junior (
1752â€"
1825),
Philip Hardwick (
1792â€"
1870), and
Philip Charles Hardwick (
1822â€"
92) were all
architects/
surveyors to Barts. Philip Hardwick was also employed in the rebuilding of the church of St Bartholomew-the-Less in
1823 and also contributed the
fountain in the
courtyard.
After a controversial review of London hospitals in the
1990s, Barts was threatened with closure, and lost its
Accident and Emergency (A&E) department, whose absence is still hotly resented locally. The nearest A&E is now at the
Royal London Hospital, a sister hospital of Barts which is a couple of
miles away in
Whitechapel. The Minor Injuries unit at Barts aims to replace A&E for small cases (which often represent a significant part of the workload of A&E services), but urgent and major work goes to the Royal London or other hospitals. Many campaign stickers demanding the reopening of Barts's A&E may still be seen in shops in the area, and the events of
September 11, 2001 and
July 7, 2005 increased concern about A&E provision so close to the City, which presents a tempting terrorist target.
A common view of some medical staff is that it is difficult for hospitals without an A&E to keep at the cutting edge of skills, acquire interesting and varied cases, etc. Nevertheless, the new plan is for Barts to develop as a centre of excellence in
cardiac care and
cancer, and to this end major investment and redevelopment is taking place at the site.
Barts, along with the
Royal London and London Chest Hospitals, is part of
Barts and The London NHS Trust. There are 388 beds in Barts, 675 beds in the Royal London & 109 beds in the London Chest Hospital.
In
1843 St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College was established to train medics although considered to have been started by
John Abernethy when the hospital built a theatre for his lectures at the beginning of the century. In
1995 the college, along with that attached to the Royal London, merged into
Queen Mary, University of London but maintains a distinctive identity to this day. It is now known as
Barts and The London, or more formally
Barts and The London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry. It occupies some space at the Barts site in
Smithfield, with a presence at
Charterhouse Square, a short walk away in the
London Borough of Camden. The main preclinical teaching domain of the medical school is in
Whitechapel at the new and award winning
Blizard Building. The building also houses the educational facility 'The Centre of the Cell', and the Institute of
Cell and
Molecular Science.
*
John Abernethy*
Elizabeth Blackwell*
William Harvey*
James Paget*
Percivall Pott*
Barts and The London NHS Trust*
The Museum of St Bartholomew's Hospital*
Barts and The London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry*
Historic image of Barts looking across Smithfield Market*
Website in memory of the Hardwick architects
