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

Kensington Wells

Kensington Wells

In 1696 a mineral spring was discovered on the site, and the Kensington Wells developed from it. The first building to be erected at the spring was the Wells spa, which operated until the mid 18th...

Place, Commerce, Medicine

1 memorial
South London Hospital for Women

South London Hospital for Women

Hospital for women and children. Founded by surgeons Eleanor Davies-Colley and Maud Chadburn. Throughout its existence, it was staffed by women only. The original building was designed by Sir Edwin...

Building, Architecture, Medicine

2 memorials
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
Robert Koch

Robert Koch

Discovered the bacilli for anthrax, tuberculosis and cholera. A founder of bacteriology. Born Clausthal, Germany. Died Baden-Baden, Germany.

Person, Medicine, Germany

1 memorial
Hospital for Tropical Diseases

Hospital for Tropical Diseases

The Hospital for Tropical Diseases was founded on an ex-naval ship in 1821, before moving to the Royal Greenwich Hospital, and thence to the Endsleigh Gardens site in 1920. Several further moves la...

Group, Medicine

1 memorial