26. Bridge Ward Without contains in chief the Borough, or Long Southwark, St. Margaret’s Hill, Blackman Street, Stony Street, St. Thomas’s Street, Counter Street, the Mint Street, Maiden Lane, the Bankside, Bandy-leg Walk, Bennet’s Rents, George Street, Suffolk Street, Redcross Street, Whitecross Street, Worcester Street, Castle Street, Clink Street, Deadman’s Place, New Rents, Gravel Lane, Dirty Lane, St. Olave’s Street, Horselydown, Crucifix Lane, Five-foot Lane, Barnaby Street, Long Lane and Street. The Bankside consists of certain houses so called from their lying on the south bank of the Thames to the westward of the bridge. The public buildings in this ward are, St. Thomas’s Church and Hospital, Guy’s Hospital for Incurables, the church of St. Saviour, the church of St. Olave, and that of St. George, the Bridge House, the King’s Bench Prison, the Marshalsea, and the Clink Prison, the Sessions House, Compter, and New Prison. The Hospital of St. Thomas consists of four spacious courts, in the first of which are six wards for women. In the second stands the church, and another chapel, for the use of the hospital. Here also are the houses of the treasurer, hospitaller, steward, cook, and butler. In the third court are seven wards for men, with an apothecary’s shop, store-rooms and laboratory. In the fourth court are two wards for women, with a surgery, hot and cold baths, &c. And in the year 1718 another magnificent building was erected by the governors, containing lodgings and conveniences for a hundred infirm persons. So that this hospital is capable of containing five hundred patients and upwards at one time; and there are between four and five thousand people annually cured and discharged out of it, many of them being allowed money to bear their charges to their respective dwellings. But one of the greatest charities ever attempted by a private citizen was that of Thomas Guy, Esq., originally a bookseller of London, and afterwards a Member of Parliament for Tamworth, who, having acquired an immense fortune, founded a hospital for incurables, on a spot of ground adjoining to St. Thomas’s Hospital, and saw the noble fabric in a good forwardness in his lifetime, assigning about two hundred thousand pounds towards the building, and endowing it, insomuch that it is computed there may be an ample provision for four hundred unhappy people, who shall be given over by physicians and surgeons as incurable. This gentleman died in December, 1724, having first made his will, and appointed trustees to see his pious design duly executed. He gave also several thousand pounds to Christ’s Hospital, and a thousand pounds a piece to fifty of his poor relations; but the will being in print, I refer the reader to it for a more particular account of this noble charity.