St Thomas' Hospital
Encyclopedia
St Thomas' Hospital is a large NHS
hospital
in London
, England
. It is administratively a part of Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
. It has provided health care freely or under charitable auspices since the 12th century and was originally located in Southwark
.
St Thomas' Hospital is accessible from Westminster tube station (10 min walk across Westminster bridge), Waterloo station (tube and national rail, 10 min walk) and Lambeth North tube station (10 min walk).
St Thomas' Hospital is one of London's most famous hospitals - associated with names such as Astley Cooper
, William Cheselden
, Florence Nightingale
, Linda Richards
, Edmund Montgomery
and Agnes Elizabeth Jones. It is a prominent London landmark - largely due to its location on the opposite bank of the River Thames to the Houses of Parliament
.
— which suggests it may have been founded after 1173 when Becket was canonised. However, it is possible it was only renamed in 1173 and that it was established shortly after St Mary Overie Priory was founded at Southwark
in 1106 .
Originally it was run by a mixed order of Augustinian monks and nuns, dedicated to St. Thomas Becket. It provided shelter and treatment for the poor, sick, and homeless. In the fifteenth century, Richard Whittington
endowed a laying-in ward for unmarried mothers. The monastery was dissolved in 1539 during the Reformation
, but reopened in 1551 and rededicated to Thomas the Apostle
. It was reopened through the efforts of the City of London who obtained the grant of the site and a charter from Edward VI
and has remained open ever since.. The hospital was also the site of the first printed English Bible
in 1537.
At the end of the 17th century, the hospital and church were largely rebuilt by Sir Robert Clayton
, president of the hospital and a former Lord Mayor of the City of London. He employed Thomas Cartwright
as architect.
Sir Thomas Guy
, a governor of St Thomas', founded Guy's Hospital
in 1721 as a place to treat 'incurables' discharged from St Thomas'.
There are extensive surviving parts of the old Hospital on the north side of St Thomas Street, in Southwark — from the old parish church (1704), now offices but including the Old Operating Theatre
, which is now a Museum, the neighbouring Treasury and the row of Georgian houses to the corner near Joiner Street. The 'Women's Ward' of 1842 which is attached to the church / Operating Theatre, in classical style dressed stone, can best be viewed from Borough High Street, the ground floor is the main Post Office.
The hospital left Southwark in 1862 when the site was compulsorily purchased to make way for construction of the Charing Cross Railway viaduct from London Bridge Station. The hospital was temporarily housed at Royal Surrey Gardens
in Newington (Walworth) until the new Lambeth site was completed in 1871.
as a separate institution, this continued as a single medical school, commonly known at The Borough Hospitals, with teaching across St Thomas' and Guy's Hospitals. Following a dispute over the successor to the Surgeon Astley Cooper
, Guy's established its own separate medical school in 1825 .
The medical school subsequently remerged in 1982 with that at Guy's to form the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals
(UMDS). Subsequent additions included the Royal Dental Hospital of London School of Dental Surgery joining with Guy's Dental School on 1 August 1983 and St John's Institute of Dermatology on 1 August 1985.
Following discussion held between 1990 and 1992 with King's College London
and the King's College London Act 1997, the UMDS merged in 1998 with King's College School of Medicine and Dentistry to form as The Guy's, Kings & Thomas' Schools of Medicine (GKT School of Medicine), of Dentistry and of Biomedical Sciences.
This was renamed in 2005 as King's College London School of Medicine and Dentistry at Guy's, King's and St Thomas' Hospitals.
The Nightingale Training School and Home for Nurses opened at St Thomas' Hospital on July 9, 1860. It is now called the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery
and is also part of King's College London
.
The modern St Thomas' Hospital is located at a site historically known as Stangate in the London Borough of Lambeth
. It is directly across the river Thames from the Palace of Westminster
on a plot of land largely reclaimed from the river during construction of the Albert Embankment
in the late 1860s.
The new buildings were designed by Henry Currey and the foundation stone was laid by Queen Victoria in 1868. This was one of the first new hospitals to adopt the "pavilion principle" - popularised by Florence Nightingale in her Notes on Hospitals - by having six separate ward buildings at right angles to the river frontage set 125 feet apart and linked by low corridors. The intention was primarily to improve ventilation and to separate and segregate patients with infectious diseases. There was a seventh pavilion at the north end of the site next to Westminster Bridge Road for the "Treasurer's House" (hospital offices) and a nurses home. Between the middle ward pavilions was the entrance hall from Lambeth Palace Road and chapel. The medical school was at the southern end of the site.
The formal layout to the Albert Embankment was also designed to complement the Parliamentary buildings opposite.
The hospital was designed to accommodate 588 beds, although the hospital charity's fundraising was not sufficient to open all the wards until 1896.
As the Palace of Westminster
is still technically a Royal Palace, a convention has been adopted that any commoner who dies within the Palace is officially recorded as having died at St. Thomas' Hospital to remove the need to convene a jury of members of the Royal Household
under the Coroner of the Queen's Household
.
The northern part of the hospital site was severely damaged during World War II
destroying three ward blocks. Limited reconstruction began in the 1950s including the building now known as East Wing. Complete rebuilding to a more ambitious plan to designs by Yorke Rosenberg and Mardall was agreed on in the 1960s requiring the realignment of Lambeth Palace Road
further away from the river to enlarge the hospital campus. The new buildings have white-tiled cladding, which was a characteristic of several other University and hospital buildings designed by the YRM practice. As construction of the thirteen storey block (now North Wing) commenced in 1975 there was a widespread public reaction against the scale and appearance of this building — most notably from MPs who could see it from the river terrace of the Palace of Westminster. The southern part of the redevelopment, which would have included a second tall block, was never constructed. The three remaining Victorian ward pavilion blocks were refurbished in the 1980s.
They are now Grade II Listed buildings.
The current main pedestrian entrance is in Westminster Bridge Road, although there is a separate vehicle and A&E entrance in Lambeth Palace Road; there is also a riverside pedestrian entrance, and the Lane-Fox Unit (sleep disorders) has its own riverside entrance, mainly for the use of patients on the Lane-Fox Ward. The pedestrian entrance to the campus leads to a glazed link between the Lambeth Wing and the North Wing. The Guy's and St. Thomas' Charitable Foundation commissioned sculptor Rick Kirby
to produce a sculpture "Cross the Divide", and this was unveiled in 2000 outside the Main Entrance. To the north of the North Wing (closer to Westminster Bridge Road) there is a garden area above car parking with Naum Gabo
's fountain sculpture Revolving Torsion at its centre.
With the closure of the Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital at the Greenwich Hospital in 1986, services for seamen and their families are provided by the 'Dreadnought Unit' at St Thomas' Hospital. It allows eligible Merchant seafarers access to priority medical treatment, except cardiac surgery, and is funded by central government with money separate from other NHS trust funds. It originally consisted of two 28-bed wards, but nowadays Dreadnought patients are treated according to clinical need and so are placed in the ward most suitable for their medical condition.
The St John's Institute of Dermatology department at the hospital has specialist skin pharmacy and specialist operating theatres.
Following the merger of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals into one Trust, Accident and Emergency Services were consolidated at St Thomas' in 1990
A unique unit was set up in the late 1990s by Dr Chris Aps, allowing cardiothoracic surgical patients to be rapidly recovered away from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). This Overnight Intensive Recovery Unit (OIR) has become the template for similar units across the UK and remains active to this day although is currently threatened with being merged into the ICU.
Children's hospital departments are provided by Evelina Children's Hospital
. This moved from Guy's Hospital into a new building designed by Michael Hopkins on south eastern part of the St Thomas's site in 2005. The design of the new hospital, which is focused on a four storey conservatory has won several architectural awards for the way it has been designed to provide a friendly environment for children, many of whom may be long term patients.
and Thomas the Apostle
." Within the South Wing of the hospital there are a number of late Victorian brass plaques headed "St Thomas's Hospital" i.e. using singular possessive. However the medical school used the singular possessive s's as it was the school of the hospital and so was termed "St Thomas's Hospital Medical School".
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is administratively a part of Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
NHS Foundation Trust
An NHS foundation trust is part of the National Health Service in England and has gained a degree of independence from the Department of Health and local NHS strategic health authority.Foundation Trusts are represented by the , .-Function:...
. It has provided health care freely or under charitable auspices since the 12th century and was originally located in Southwark
Southwark
Southwark is a district of south London, England, and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Southwark. Situated east of Charing Cross, it forms one of the oldest parts of London and fronts the River Thames to the north...
.
St Thomas' Hospital is accessible from Westminster tube station (10 min walk across Westminster bridge), Waterloo station (tube and national rail, 10 min walk) and Lambeth North tube station (10 min walk).
St Thomas' Hospital is one of London's most famous hospitals - associated with names such as Astley Cooper
Astley Cooper
Sir Astley Paston Cooper, 1st Baronet was an English surgeon and anatomist, who made historical contributions to otology, vascular surgery, the anatomy and pathology of the mammary glands and testicles, and the pathology and surgery of hernia.-Life:Cooper was born at Brooke Hall in Brooke, Norfolk...
, William Cheselden
William Cheselden
William Cheselden was an English surgeon and teacher of anatomy and surgery, who was influential in establishing surgery as a scientific medical profession.-Life:...
, Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale OM, RRC was a celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician. She came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night...
, Linda Richards
Linda Richards
Linda Richards was the first professionally trained American nurse. She established nursing training programs in the United States and Japan, and created the first system for keeping individual medical records for hospitalized patients.-Early life:...
, Edmund Montgomery
Edmund Montgomery
Edmund Duncan Montgomery was a Scottish philosopher, scientist and physician.-Early life:Edmund Duncan Montgomery was born March, 1835, in Edinburgh, Scotland...
and Agnes Elizabeth Jones. It is a prominent London landmark - largely due to its location on the opposite bank of the River Thames to the Houses of Parliament
Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
.
The Hospital at The Borough, Southwark
The hospital was described as ancient in 1215 and was named after St. Thomas BecketThomas Becket
Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...
— which suggests it may have been founded after 1173 when Becket was canonised. However, it is possible it was only renamed in 1173 and that it was established shortly after St Mary Overie Priory was founded at Southwark
Southwark
Southwark is a district of south London, England, and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Southwark. Situated east of Charing Cross, it forms one of the oldest parts of London and fronts the River Thames to the north...
in 1106 .
Originally it was run by a mixed order of Augustinian monks and nuns, dedicated to St. Thomas Becket. It provided shelter and treatment for the poor, sick, and homeless. In the fifteenth century, Richard Whittington
Richard Whittington
Sir Richard Whittington was a medieval merchant and politician, and the real-life inspiration for the pantomime character Dick Whittington. Sir Richard Whittington was four times Lord Mayor of London, a Member of Parliament and a sheriff of London...
endowed a laying-in ward for unmarried mothers. The monastery was dissolved in 1539 during the Reformation
English Reformation
The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....
, but reopened in 1551 and rededicated to Thomas the Apostle
Thomas the Apostle
Thomas the Apostle, also called Doubting Thomas or Didymus was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He is best known for questioning Jesus' resurrection when first told of it, then proclaiming "My Lord and my God" on seeing Jesus in . He was perhaps the only Apostle who went outside the Roman...
. It was reopened through the efforts of the City of London who obtained the grant of the site and a charter from Edward VI
Edward VI of England
Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...
and has remained open ever since.. The hospital was also the site of the first printed English Bible
Matthew Bible
The Matthew Bible, also known as Matthew's Version, was first published in 1537 by John Rogers, under the pseudonym "Thomas Matthew". It combined the New Testament of William Tyndale, and as much of the Old Testament as he had been able to translate before being captured and put to death...
in 1537.
At the end of the 17th century, the hospital and church were largely rebuilt by Sir Robert Clayton
Robert Clayton
Sir Robert Clayton was a British merchant banker, politician and Lord Mayor of London.Robert Clayton was born in Northamptonshire, England. He became an apprentice to his uncle, a London scrivener, where he met a fellow apprentice, Alderman John Morris...
, president of the hospital and a former Lord Mayor of the City of London. He employed Thomas Cartwright
Thomas Cartwright (architect)
Thomas Cartwright was a 17th century English architect. Cartwright was the architect employed by Sir Robert Clayton, president of the St Thomas' Hospital, to rebuild and the hospital and nearby St Thomas Church on the south bank of the River Thames opposite the Houses of Parliament in London...
as architect.
Thomas Guy
Thomas Guy was a British bookseller, speculator and de facto founder of Guy's Hospital, London-Early life:Thomas Guy was born a son of a lighterman, wharf owner and coal-dealer at Southwark. In 1668, after eight years as an apprentice of a bookseller, he began his own bookstore in Lombard Street...
, a governor of St Thomas', founded Guy's Hospital
Guy's Hospital
Guy's Hospital is a large NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in south east London, England. It is administratively a part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. It is a large teaching hospital and is home to the King's College London School of Medicine...
in 1721 as a place to treat 'incurables' discharged from St Thomas'.
There are extensive surviving parts of the old Hospital on the north side of St Thomas Street, in Southwark — from the old parish church (1704), now offices but including the Old Operating Theatre
Old Operating Theatre
The Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret is a museum of surgical history and one of the oldest surviving operating theatres. It is located in the garret of St Thomas's Church, Southwark, on the original site of St Thomas' Hospital....
, which is now a Museum, the neighbouring Treasury and the row of Georgian houses to the corner near Joiner Street. The 'Women's Ward' of 1842 which is attached to the church / Operating Theatre, in classical style dressed stone, can best be viewed from Borough High Street, the ground floor is the main Post Office.
The hospital left Southwark in 1862 when the site was compulsorily purchased to make way for construction of the Charing Cross Railway viaduct from London Bridge Station. The hospital was temporarily housed at Royal Surrey Gardens
Royal Surrey Gardens
Royal Surrey Gardens were pleasure gardens in Kennington, London in the Victorian period, slightly east of The Oval. The gardens occupied about to the east side of Kennington Road, including a lake of about . It was the site of Surrey Zoological Gardens and Surrey Music Hall.The gardens were the...
in Newington (Walworth) until the new Lambeth site was completed in 1871.
List of Priors, Masters, Wardens or Rectors
The following names are provided by the Victoria County History, Surrey:- Archdeacon Amicius, occurs 1213, 1215
- Adam de Merton, occurs 1235
- Thomas de Codeham, occurs 1248, 1251
- Fulcher, elected 1261
- Adam II
- Richard de Bikleswade, resigned 1283 " " (re-elected), died 1295
- Richard de Hulmo, 1295
- Walter de Marlowe. 1316
- Stephen de Bykleswade, occurs 1321, 1338
- William de Stanton, occurs 1338, 1342
- Walter de Marlowe, appointed 1350, 1351
- John de Bradewyn (Bradeway) appointed 1356
- Henry Yakesley, appointed 1361; died 1377
- William de Welfrid, appointed 1377; died 1381
- Thomas Gouday, appointed 1381; died 1392
- Henry Grygge, appointed 1393; occurs 1401
- John Reed, appointed 1414; died 1427
- Nicholas Bokeland, appointed 1427; resigned 1447
- William Crosse, appointed 1447; resigned 1478
- Sir William Twynyho (Master) 1485
- William Beele, appointed 1478; resigned 1487
- John Burnham, appointed 1487; died 1501
- Richard Richardson, appointed 1501; resigned 1528
- Richard Mabbot, appointed 1528; died 1539
- Thomas Thurleby, appointed 1539; surrendered 1540
Medical training at St Thomas' Hospital
St Thomas's Hospital Medical School was established in 1550. Following the establishment of Guy's HospitalGuy's Hospital
Guy's Hospital is a large NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in south east London, England. It is administratively a part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. It is a large teaching hospital and is home to the King's College London School of Medicine...
as a separate institution, this continued as a single medical school, commonly known at The Borough Hospitals, with teaching across St Thomas' and Guy's Hospitals. Following a dispute over the successor to the Surgeon Astley Cooper
Astley Cooper
Sir Astley Paston Cooper, 1st Baronet was an English surgeon and anatomist, who made historical contributions to otology, vascular surgery, the anatomy and pathology of the mammary glands and testicles, and the pathology and surgery of hernia.-Life:Cooper was born at Brooke Hall in Brooke, Norfolk...
, Guy's established its own separate medical school in 1825 .
The medical school subsequently remerged in 1982 with that at Guy's to form the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals
United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals
The United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals was the name given to the joint medical and dental school formed in London as a result of the merger of Guy's Hospital Medical School, St Thomas's Hospital Medical School and the Royal Dental Hospital of London.The merged...
(UMDS). Subsequent additions included the Royal Dental Hospital of London School of Dental Surgery joining with Guy's Dental School on 1 August 1983 and St John's Institute of Dermatology on 1 August 1985.
Following discussion held between 1990 and 1992 with King's College London
King's College London
King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...
and the King's College London Act 1997, the UMDS merged in 1998 with King's College School of Medicine and Dentistry to form as The Guy's, Kings & Thomas' Schools of Medicine (GKT School of Medicine), of Dentistry and of Biomedical Sciences.
This was renamed in 2005 as King's College London School of Medicine and Dentistry at Guy's, King's and St Thomas' Hospitals.
The Nightingale Training School and Home for Nurses opened at St Thomas' Hospital on July 9, 1860. It is now called the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery
Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery
The Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery is a school within King's College London. It is primarily concerned with the education of people to become nurses and midwives...
and is also part of King's College London
King's College London
King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...
.
The modern hospital
London Borough of Lambeth
The London Borough of Lambeth is a London borough in south London, England and forms part of Inner London. The local authority is Lambeth London Borough Council.-Origins:...
. It is directly across the river Thames from the Palace of Westminster
Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
on a plot of land largely reclaimed from the river during construction of the Albert Embankment
Albert Embankment
The Albert Embankment is a stretch of the river bank on the south side of the River Thames in Central London. It stretches approximately one mile northward from Vauxhall Bridge to Westminster Bridge, and is located in the London Borough of Lambeth.Albert Embankment is also the name given to the...
in the late 1860s.
The new buildings were designed by Henry Currey and the foundation stone was laid by Queen Victoria in 1868. This was one of the first new hospitals to adopt the "pavilion principle" - popularised by Florence Nightingale in her Notes on Hospitals - by having six separate ward buildings at right angles to the river frontage set 125 feet apart and linked by low corridors. The intention was primarily to improve ventilation and to separate and segregate patients with infectious diseases. There was a seventh pavilion at the north end of the site next to Westminster Bridge Road for the "Treasurer's House" (hospital offices) and a nurses home. Between the middle ward pavilions was the entrance hall from Lambeth Palace Road and chapel. The medical school was at the southern end of the site.
The formal layout to the Albert Embankment was also designed to complement the Parliamentary buildings opposite.
The hospital was designed to accommodate 588 beds, although the hospital charity's fundraising was not sufficient to open all the wards until 1896.
As the Palace of Westminster
Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
is still technically a Royal Palace, a convention has been adopted that any commoner who dies within the Palace is officially recorded as having died at St. Thomas' Hospital to remove the need to convene a jury of members of the Royal Household
Royal Households of the United Kingdom
The Royal Households of the United Kingdom are the organised offices and support systems for the British Royal Family, along with their immediate families...
under the Coroner of the Queen's Household
Coroner of the Queen's Household
The Coroner of the King's/Queen's Household is an officer of the Medical Household of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom.-History:...
.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
destroying three ward blocks. Limited reconstruction began in the 1950s including the building now known as East Wing. Complete rebuilding to a more ambitious plan to designs by Yorke Rosenberg and Mardall was agreed on in the 1960s requiring the realignment of Lambeth Palace Road
Lambeth Palace Road
Lambeth Palace Road runs between Westminster Bridge and Lambeth Bridge, in Lambeth, London, on the south bank of the River Thames. St Thomas' Hospital lies between it and the river. At the southern end is Lambeth Palace, the London base of the Archbishop of Canterbury.The road forms part of the A3036...
further away from the river to enlarge the hospital campus. The new buildings have white-tiled cladding, which was a characteristic of several other University and hospital buildings designed by the YRM practice. As construction of the thirteen storey block (now North Wing) commenced in 1975 there was a widespread public reaction against the scale and appearance of this building — most notably from MPs who could see it from the river terrace of the Palace of Westminster. The southern part of the redevelopment, which would have included a second tall block, was never constructed. The three remaining Victorian ward pavilion blocks were refurbished in the 1980s.
They are now Grade II Listed buildings.
Rick Kirby
Rick Kirby is an English sculptor born in Gillingham, Kent.Kirby started sculpting in stone before moving to use welded steel, for which he is better known.-Notable commissions:*Formation in Ravenswood, Ipswich, 2003....
to produce a sculpture "Cross the Divide", and this was unveiled in 2000 outside the Main Entrance. To the north of the North Wing (closer to Westminster Bridge Road) there is a garden area above car parking with Naum Gabo
Naum Gabo
Naum Gabo KBE, born Naum Neemia Pevsner was a prominent Russian sculptor in the Constructivism movement and a pioneer of Kinetic Art.-Early life:...
's fountain sculpture Revolving Torsion at its centre.
With the closure of the Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital at the Greenwich Hospital in 1986, services for seamen and their families are provided by the 'Dreadnought Unit' at St Thomas' Hospital. It allows eligible Merchant seafarers access to priority medical treatment, except cardiac surgery, and is funded by central government with money separate from other NHS trust funds. It originally consisted of two 28-bed wards, but nowadays Dreadnought patients are treated according to clinical need and so are placed in the ward most suitable for their medical condition.
The St John's Institute of Dermatology department at the hospital has specialist skin pharmacy and specialist operating theatres.
Following the merger of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals into one Trust, Accident and Emergency Services were consolidated at St Thomas' in 1990
A unique unit was set up in the late 1990s by Dr Chris Aps, allowing cardiothoracic surgical patients to be rapidly recovered away from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). This Overnight Intensive Recovery Unit (OIR) has become the template for similar units across the UK and remains active to this day although is currently threatened with being merged into the ICU.
Children's hospital departments are provided by Evelina Children's Hospital
Evelina Children's Hospital
Evelina Children's Hospital is a specialist NHS hospital in London. It is administratively a part of Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and provides teaching hospital facilities for King's College London...
. This moved from Guy's Hospital into a new building designed by Michael Hopkins on south eastern part of the St Thomas's site in 2005. The design of the new hospital, which is focused on a four storey conservatory has won several architectural awards for the way it has been designed to provide a friendly environment for children, many of whom may be long term patients.
Explanation of the hospital's name
The use of the plural possessive s' in place of the singular possessive s's is fairly recent. The hospital trust claims that plural s' is grammatically correct, as "there are two men called St Thomas linked to the hospital's history: Thomas BecketThomas Becket
Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...
and Thomas the Apostle
Thomas the Apostle
Thomas the Apostle, also called Doubting Thomas or Didymus was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He is best known for questioning Jesus' resurrection when first told of it, then proclaiming "My Lord and my God" on seeing Jesus in . He was perhaps the only Apostle who went outside the Roman...
." Within the South Wing of the hospital there are a number of late Victorian brass plaques headed "St Thomas's Hospital" i.e. using singular possessive. However the medical school used the singular possessive s's as it was the school of the hospital and so was termed "St Thomas's Hospital Medical School".
Portrayal in fiction
- Doctor Who The location building of St Thomas' Hospital serves as the location of the fictional Royal Hope Hospital featured in the Doctor Who episode "Smith and Jones". In the episode, the hospital is temporarily transported to the moon and a smoking pit is shown at the location of the real St. Thomas' Hospital. In images of the hospital sitting on the moon, it appears that the main building of St. Thomas' is used with an added tower. Most other exterior shots of the hospital appear to be of Singleton Hospital in Swansea, Wales, but modified to the resemble the more square shape of St. Thomas'.
- 28 Days Later The hospital also featured in the 2002 film '28 Days Later28 Days Later28 Days Later is an acclaimed 2002 British horror film directed by Danny Boyle. The screenplay was written by Alex Garland, and the film stars Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Megan Burns, and Christopher Eccleston...
' in which the hospital was abandoned due to the nationwide outbreak of a deadly virus which causes it victims to go insane.
See also
- Florence Nightingale MuseumFlorence Nightingale MuseumThe Florence Nightingale Museum is located at St Thomas' Hospital, which faces the Palace of Westminster across the River Thames in South Bank, central London, England. It is open to the public seven days a week...
- Lambeth Palace RoadLambeth Palace RoadLambeth Palace Road runs between Westminster Bridge and Lambeth Bridge, in Lambeth, London, on the south bank of the River Thames. St Thomas' Hospital lies between it and the river. At the southern end is Lambeth Palace, the London base of the Archbishop of Canterbury.The road forms part of the A3036...
, to the rear of the hospital
External links
- Guy's and St Thomas' Knowledge and Information Centre
- Guy's & St Thomas' Charitable Foundation
- Old Operating Theatre Museum
- http://www.haroldridley.com/Ridley_chapter.pdfExcerpts from Sir Harold RidleyHarold Ridley (ophthalmologist)Sir Nicholas Harold Lloyd Ridley was an English ophthalmologist who pioneered artificial intraocular lens transplant surgery for cataract patients.-Early years:...
's biography] with some history of the modern hospital - Dreadnought Unit information provided by the Seamen's Hospital SocietySeamen's Hospital SocietyThe Seamen's Hospital Society is a UK charity established in 1821 with the purpose of helping people currently or previously employed in the Merchant Navy or fishing fleets, and their dependants...
's funded Seafarers' Benefits Advice Line - The Dreadnought Seamen's hospital history by PortCities
- King's College London
- Survey of London entry (1951)
- http://www.theroyalwaterlooexperiment.co.uk