St Bartholomew’s Hospital has led the provision of healthcare in London for almost 900 years. Founded in 1123 by a man named Rahere to provide care for the poor of the City of London, there is no other hospital in the country which matches its record of continuous service on the same site.
We had a look at the grand staircase last week and amongst others of historical note to see here are the Gatehouse from 1702; the hospital church of St. Bartholomew the Less, with its 15th century tower; and 18th century blocks built by James Gibbs blocks, built between 1732 and 1769 around a grand Square with an elegant Fountain and thats before we get to the Victorian era.
Easily the grandest of these buildings is the Grade I listed North Wing, with its large triple-height Great Hall. The wing was built to house the financial and management functions of the hospital, including the admission and discharge of patients, the living accommodation of key clerical staff, and the work of the hospital’s governors. Prior to the creation of the NHS, the costs of running the hospital were not borne from taxes, insurance or private investment, but by voluntary donations from benefactors. The Board of Governors used the Hall to hold its meetings, and to welcome and entertain the great and the good of the City to attract them to become donors, whose names and the sums of their donation were inscribed on its walls until 1905 when they simply ran out of room! Patient care was provided in the other wings of the hospital, as it still is today.
The Great Hall is decorated with portraits and dedications to the early contributors to the redevelopment of the hospital. Most striking is the portrait of Henry VIII at the west end of the room, hands on hips and rather typically for him, glaring down at all who enter. A combination of the majesty of the stairway and the ever-watching gaze of this most belligerent of monarchs, makes this a suitably intimidating arena in which to examine final year medical students!
The Henry VIII portrait is a copy of an original that was hung in the Palace of Whitehall, until it was destroyed by fire in 1698. A central fireplace is decorated with a portrait of St Bartholomew. Opposite this is the 17th century Charter Window, not installed until 1743, but moved to the building from the previous great hall of the hospital by order of the governors. It depicts Henry VIII presenting his Charter to the Lord Mayor of London on the refoundation of the hospital. On the east wall is a hung portrait of Edward VII, first royal President of the Hospital.
The ceiling was decorated in gold leaf by Jean Baptiste St Michell and represents his only work in England. Other important works include portraits of Percivall Pott painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds and of James Paget by Sir John Millais, and another portrait of Henry VIII after Holbein, which hang in the Henry VIII committee room at the foot of the grand staircase, where the governors’ committees met to undertake the business of the hospital. Other portraits of notable Bart’s clinicians hang in the hospital’s museum, also on the ground floor, which tells the story of the hospital’s long history.
Following the inception of the National Health Service in 1948, the funding of St Bartholomew’s, like other hospitals, became the responsibility of the government and so the functions of the Great Hall gradually changed to more general uses such as an examination hall for students, award ceremonies, receptions, dinners and cultural events.
Despite this, the Great Hall has become if not run down then at least in need of a spring clean and careful restoration works and so to keep a clear lineage between the NHS hospital and the heritage sites a new charity, Barts Heritage has been created to plan and oversea a major restoration project to start in 2023, the 900th anniversary of the Hospital and to find ways to make better use of the building in order to fund its care in perpetuity.
If Great Halls are your thing then check out Visiting the table of King Arthur and his Knights at the Great Hall in Winchester and definitely these two at Greenwich The Painted Hall of Greenwich – Englands Sistine Chapel Up Close and Personal with the Greenwich Painted Hall Ceiling
If you’d like to see all manner of healthcare related sites in London and learn a very different and quirky side of history then check out my tour London’s Millennia of Progress: A Medical History of Bodysnatchers to Vaccines!
Stephen Liddell 