Group    From 17/4/1828 

Royal Free Hospital

Categories: Medicine

Founded by William Marsden as the London General Institution for the Gratuitous Cure of Malignant Diseases on 17th April 1828 in a rented 4-storey house at 16 Greville Street, Hatton Garden. September 1833 the name changed to London Free Hospital (good move).  1835 it became the Free Hospital.  1837 Queen Victoria became its patron and it became the Royal Free Hospital.

1844 the hospital moved to the former barracks of the Light Horse Volunteers in Grays Inn Road.  These buildings were gradually expanded and rebuilt.  1929 the Eastman Dental Clinic opened next door. 1948 the Hospital became part of the NHS and joined a group of other hospitals one of which was the Hampstead General Hospital. 1974 the Hospital moved to a new building in Pond Street Hampstead and the Grays Inn Road site was closed.  The Pond Street building was officially opened by the Queen in 1978, on the Hospital’s 150th anniversary.  The Grays Inn Road buildings were taken over by the Eastman Dental Hospital in 1988.

All this information comes from the splendid Lost Hospitals.

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Royal Free Hospital

Commemorated ati

PP - 3H - Rabbeth

Samuel Rabbeth, medical officer of the Royal Free Hospital, who tried to save...

Read More

Royal Free Hospital - 150 anniversary tree

This Mulberry was donated by the League of the Royal Free Hospital Nurses to ...

Read More

Royal Free Hospital and Medical School Opening

The plaque is by the entrance to the Medical School.

Read More

Royal Free Hospital - development

The spelling of "honor" is not a mistake on our part.

Read More

Royal Free Hospital - Sussex wing

The Duke of Sussex had died just 3 years before this plaque was erected. We ...

Read More

Show all 6

Other Subjects

Joseph Lister

Joseph Lister

Born in Upton, Essex. Died in Walmer, Kent. Pioneer in the use of antiseptics in surgery. The medical historian, Ruth Richardson, has an interesting piece in the Lancet reporting on how Agnes his w...

Person, Medicine

3 memorials
First purpose built nurses' home in London

First purpose built nurses' home in London

The Henriette Raphael Building at Guy's Hospital.

Place, Community / Clubs, Medicine

1 memorial
German Hospital

German Hospital

Opened with 12 beds in 1845. The local German community was very large at this time and nurses were recruited from Germany from the Kaiserworth Institute. Florence Nightingale was so inspired by th...

Building, Medicine

2 memorials
Dr. Edward Adrian Wilson

Dr. Edward Adrian Wilson

Born Cheltenham. One of Scott's four companions who died with him, returning from the South Pole. Cheltenham honours Wilson with a statue on the Promenade and an exhibition in the town museum.

Person, Exploring, Medicine, Arctic & Antarctic

2 memorials
Henry Gray

Henry Gray

Anatomist and surgeon. Born in Pimlico. In 1845 he became a student at St George's Hospital, and in 1852 was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1858 he published the first edition of his 'An...

Person, Medicine

2 memorials