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.
