Founded long ago, St. Thomas’s Hospital stands as a testament to London’s enduring spirit. This hospital has provided care since the twelfth century. It began as part of the Augustinian Priory of St Mary Overie. This means it was over the river. It was later renamed The Hospital of St Thomas the Martyr. This happened after Thomas a Becket’s canonization in 1173. The hospital was near Southwark Cathedral at that time.
A fire in 1212 destroyed the Priory. Soon after, St. Thomas’s found a new home. It moved to the east side of what is now Borough High Street. This new building was two stories high. It could care for about 40 people. The hospital mainly served the sick poor, the needy, and travelers. St. Thomas’s remained at this location for almost 650 years.
Southwark was a suburb with a bad reputation. It was known for vice and immorality. In the early fifteenth century, Richard Whittington created a refuge at St. Thomas’s. This refuge was for unmarried mothers. In 1535, Thomas Cromwell visited. He called it the bawdy hospital of Southwark. This might have been because it cared for patients with venereal disease. The hospital’s master allegedly kept a concubine. He had also sold the church plate.
Henry VIII closed St. Thomas’s during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1540. Thomas Beckett was decanonized. Later, Edward VI granted the buildings to the Lord Mayor and citizens of London in 1551. This was because of the sick and poor begging in the streets. The hospital was renamed the Hospital of St Thomas the Apostle.
The new royal hospital was run by a General Court of Governors. These governors were representatives of the City of London. A hospital president headed them. The governors managed the hospital. They also helped senior medical staff admit new patients. This happened on taking in day. It was the governors who decided which patients were admitted not the medical staff. Patients had to attend daily chapel services. If they did not, they went without food. They were also punished for gambling, swearing, and drunkenness.
Between 1693 and 1709, the hospital was rebuilt. It became an elegant classical structure around three courtyards. This was largely funded by President Robert Clayton. The rebuilt St. Thomas’s could house over 400 patients. It had nineteen wards. Four of these were foule wards for venereal patients. The rebuilding replaced the medieval church. This church now houses the museum.
Clayton was aided by his rich friend Thomas Guy. Guy founded the adjacent Guy’s Hospital. It admitted St. Thomas’s incurables. These were patients with infectious diseases and lunatics. In 1752, new rules were created. No patient was admitted more than once with the same disease. Suspicious talk was forbidden. Entering wards of the opposite sex was banned. No more than one patient was allowed in a bed.
St. Thomas’s initially admitted all deserving cases for free. However, by the eighteenth century, most patients paid fees. They also had to provide a deposit for burial costs if they died. Governors could waive fees for the poorest. But most patients who could not pay sought help from their parish or private patrons.
Operating theaters were introduced in the eighteenth century. These were on the top floor to maximize daylight. The male theater was built in 1751. The female theater was built in 1821. Operations were swift. Anesthetics were not used until 1847. Antiseptic surgery was not introduced until the 1860s.
Florence Nightingale opened her school for nurses at St. Thomas’s in 1859. She emphasized dedication, discipline, and a strict moral code. In the same year, the Charing Cross Railway acquired the hospital site. This followed Parliament’s decision to extend the London Bridge railway line. St. Thomas’s left Southwark in 1862. Most of its buildings were demolished.
The hospital moved to the former zoological buildings in Surrey Gardens. It was far from perfect. There was no ventilation or heating. The kitchen doubled as the operating theater. The giraffe house became a cholera ward. The elephant house became the dissecting room. A suitable permanent site was found at Stangate in Lambeth. Work began in 1865. Queen Victoria opened the new hospital six years later.
Medicine rapidly advanced at the end of the nineteenth century. Specialist departments opened. These were in dentistry, eye surgery, and electrical therapy. In 1896, St. Thomas’s was chosen for the first demonstration of x-rays in a London hospital. St. Thomas’s Hospital remains on this site today.