Place   

St Thomas' Hospital

Categories: Medicine

St Thomas' Hospital

Named after Thomas a Becket, so possibly founded after 1173 when Becket was canonised. As part of an Augustinian monastery, St Thomas’ (at the London Bridge site) was closed during the Reformation. Re-opened during Edward VI’s reign. In 1862 the railways need the hospital land so St Thomas' moved, temporarily to Royal Surrey Gardens, Walworth and then moved into its new permanent site in Lambeth in 1871. Several extensions to the buildings have been added over the years.

Our photo shows the stainless steel Revolving Torsion Fountain by Naum Gabo, 1972, in St Thomas's Hospital Garden. The water jets form part of the sculpture as they meet and shatter apart. The title suggests that perhaps the whole structure was intended to revolve but some early footage shows it operating roughly as it does now. We also like the water spilling out from the lower basin but this only happens at the left side and it's not clear whether this should be happening at all.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
St Thomas' Hospital

Commemorated ati

Edward VI statue at St Thomas's - Cartwright

This 1682 statue by Cartwright was commissioned by Clayton and was originally...

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Edward VI statue at St Thomas's - Scheemaker

First erected in the second of St Thomas’s three courts, shown in a drawing h...

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Florence Nightingale Garden

{Left hand plaque:} The Nightingale badge awarded between 1925 - 1996. {Cent...

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Keats and Stephens

On this site, poet & apothecary John Keats, & his friend, the poet, a...

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Robert Clayton statue

The inscription is quite badly damaged but we found a transcription in a 1776...

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Show all 7

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George Carpenter

George Carpenter

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1 memorial
Ethel Gordon Fenwick

Ethel Gordon Fenwick

Click on ICN for information about the world's first international organisation for health professionals, which she co-founded.

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1 memorial
Sister Dorothy Louise Thomas, GC

Sister Dorothy Louise Thomas, GC

Nurse.  Born East London.  From Stephen's Study Room: "At the time of her EGM award she was a Nursing Sister at the Middlesex Hospital {Foley Street}, London.  On the 26 January 1934, Sister Thomas...

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1 memorial
Stanley Bean Atkinson

Stanley Bean Atkinson

Barrister-at-law, Stepney Borough Councillor, guardian of the poor, member of Metropolitan Asylums Board. On top of his legal qualifications he also studied medicine at St Bartholomew's. Died aged ...

Person, Law, Medicine, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
William Crawford Gorgas

William Crawford Gorgas

Born Mobile, Alabama. Worked in the medical department of the US army and specialised in yellow fever. Died in London from a stroke while on his way to West Africa.

Person, Armed Forces, Medicine, USA

1 memorial