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

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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

This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
St Thomas' Hospital

Creations i

First intraocular lens implant

Wikimedia points out that "Harold Ridley and his theatre nurse (Mrs Doreen Og...

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Other Subjects

Receiving House

Receiving House

In 1774 a group of London doctors, concerned at the number of people who were mistakenly being given up for dead, wanted to promote new techniques of resuscitation. They decided to concentrate on d...

Building, Medicine, Tragedy

1 memorial
men and women of Guy's Hospital who died in WW2

men and women of Guy's Hospital who died in WW2

The ninety four men and women of Guy's Hospital who gave their lives during the war of 1939 - 1945.

Group, Medicine

1 memorial
Sir Henry Dale

Sir Henry Dale

Physiologist. Born London. There is a portrait memorial by Mary Gillick at the Royal Society of Medicine. Source: Art UK.

Person, Medicine

1 memorial