Hippocrates - Gower Street, London, UK
N 51° 31.507 W 000° 08.120
30U E 698716 N 5712113
This bust of Hippocrates is at first floor level of 136 Gower Street at the junction with Gower Place.
Waymark Code: WMJTCR
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 12/29/2013
Views: 2
The bust, that is about life-size, is made from bronze and shows a bearded Hippocrates with robes over his shoulders.
There appears to be no reason for the bust to be here let alone one of Hippocrates. It is only when the plaque on the wall is read, and a little research done, that it starts to make sense.
The plaque, on the wall below the bust, does not mention Hippocrates but tells us:
H K Lewis & Co Ltd
Founded 1844 at 136 Gower St
by Henry King Lewis.
24 Gower Place added 1907.
Incorporated 1915.
This building erected 1930-31.
It is only when the business of H K Lewis is investigated that the relationship with Hippocrates starts to become clear.
The University College London website tells us that their archives contain:
The records of medical publishers and booksellers, H.K. Lewis & Company Ltd, for the period 1892-1973. The collection consists of ledgers, minute books, agenda books, letter books, registers, account books, other books, balance sheets and accounts, share certificates, articles of association, correspondence, miscellaneous, plans, pictures, photographs, and printed items.
The firm was founded by Henry King Lewis (1822-99) in 1844 and occupied 136 Gower Street and 28 Gower Place. In 1989 the business was purchased by Pentos publishing group.
So, the link is medical with H K Lewis being medical publishers and Hippocrates being an ancient Greek physician and philosopher and the name behind the Hippocratic Oath.
The Science Photo website tells us:
Bust of Hippocrates (c.460-370 BC), Ancient Greek physician and philosopher. Hippocrates is considered the father of medicine. His influence survives in the Hippocratic oath, a set of medical ethics that some medical students take when they have completed their training. He founded a medical school on the Aegean island of Cos where he taught his ideas on medicine. This bust, by the Aumonier firm, was erected in 1930, on the corner of Gower Street and Gower Place, London, UK, on the building housing the medical bookshop and publisher H.K. Lewis (presented by the wife of the chairman, H.L. Jackson). The bust is based on a sculpture held at British Museum.