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

Other Subjects

Royal National Throat Nose & Ear Hospital

Royal National Throat Nose & Ear Hospital

From Lost Hospitals of London: "In 1862 Dr. Morell Mackenzie ... , one of the pioneers of laryngology, founded the Free Dispensary for Diseases of the Throat and Loss of Voice at 5 King Street (lat...

Group, Medicine

1 memorial
St Nicholas Nursery

St Nicholas Nursery

In association with the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street.

Group, Children, Medicine

1 memorial
Bagnigge House

Bagnigge House

The house was built on the site of the, supposedly holy, Bagnigge Wells (mineral springs) in 1678.  Nell Gwynne was supposed to have lived in this house. The picture shows the house c. 1790. In th...

Building, Commerce, Medicine

1 memorial
Dr John Langdon Haydon Down

Dr John Langdon Haydon Down

Doctor specialising in mental illnesses who classified what is now called Down's Syndrome in 1862.  We think the family used 'Langdon Down' as their surname. Born Cornwall.  Aged 18, he came to Lo...

Person, Medicine

1 memorial