St Thomas' Hospital - London, UK - Hospitals on Waymarking.com

The first St Thomas' was a charitable hospital with only 40 beds. The original site was known as St Mary's Overie, and it existed decades before 1170. The original site is where Southwark Cathedral, near today's Guy's Hospital, now stands. It was run by Augustinian monks.

In the 16th century King Henry VIII closed down all monastic institutions, including St Thomas', and took their wealth. He planned to refound St Thomas' due to the number of sick and dying on the streets of London, but he died before he signed the Bill. His son Edward reopened it in 1555 on the condition that it no longer took its name from the Catholic saint St Thomas Becket and instead honoured St Thomas the Apostle.

As London grew, so did the hospital. After the Great Fire of London in 1666, the streets around the hospital were breeding grounds for disease and many children died before the age of two.

By the late 18th century the powerful railway companies won the right to build London Bridge station on part of the hospital's site. Eventually, and after temporarily relocating its patients to an old zoo in Kennington, St Thomas' was rebuilt to its present location opposite the Houses of Parliament. This move coincided with Florence Nighingale's return from the Crimean war, who influenced the design of St Thomas' by ensuring that the ward environment had high ceilings and was big and airy in order to help patients feel better.

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Address: Westminster Bridge Road Lambeth London, United Kingdom SE1 7HY Website: [Web Link] Rate this facility:

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