The Story of LondonWheatley, Henry B. (Henry Benjamin)
History
The Story of London
Wheatley, Henry B. (Henry Benjamin)
London (England) -- History
The first physician of St. Bartholomew's was Dr. Roderigo Lopus, a
Portuguese Jew, who was appointed about 1567.
_St. Thomas's Hospital._--This hospital is almost of as great antiquity
as St. Bartholomew's. The original hospital belonged to the canons of
the Priory of St. Mary Overy, and was situated on the west side of the
road running south from London Bridge. In 1207 the hospital was
destroyed in the fire which devastated the borough of Southwark, but a
temporary building was erected on the old site (now occupied by the
Bridge House Hotel and the London and Westminster Bank). Peter de
Rupibus, Bishop of Winchester, projected a new hospital on a more
suitable site on the east side of the road, and appealed for funds for
this purpose by means of a charter of indulgence, 1228: 'Behold at
Southwark an ancient hospital built of old to entertain the poor, has
been entirely reduced to cinders and ashes by a lamentable fire;
moreover, the place wherein the old hospital has been founded was less
appropriate for entertainment and habitation, both by reason of the
straitness of the place and by reason of the lack of water and many
other conveniences; according to the advice of us, and of wise men, it
is transferred and transplanted to another more commodious site, where
the air is more pure and calm, and the supply of water more plentiful.'
The new hospital was dedicated to St. Thomas (à Becket) the Martyr, and
became independent of St. Mary's Priory. It was frequently referred to
as Becket's Spital.
The third building was erected about 1507, and in 1535, a short time
before the dissolution of the religious houses, the custos or master,
the brethren and the three lay sisters, had the charge of forty beds for
poor and infirm people, who were to be supplied with food and firing.
The hospital was refounded in 1553 by Edward VI., and endowed with 4000
marks a year. It was dedicated to St. Thomas the Apostle, but was often
called, in honour of Edward, the King's Hospital. The parish of St.
Thomas Apostle, Southwark, contained within its limits the two hospitals
of St. Thomas and Guy's, and was often called the parish of St. Thomas's
Hospital. Thus the old name remained, but the dedication was changed
from that of the famous saint of the Middle Ages to that of the Apostle
St. Thomas.
Dr. Payne, who wrote an essay 'On some old Physicians of St. Thomas's
Hospital,' says that in old times the staff was exclusively surgical.
Dr. Eliazer Hodson, who was appointed about 1620, was the first named
that Dr. Payne could find, but he does not think that Hodson was the
first physician.
The building having fallen into disrepair was entirely rebuilt in
1701-1706, and the hospital remained on the same spot from 1228 until
1862, when the property was sold to the South Eastern Railway Company,
and a new hospital was opened on the Albert Embankment at the southern
end of Westminster Bridge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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