Origins By the middle of the 18th century, there were five
voluntary hospitals in London (
St Bartholomew's,
Guy's,
St Thomas',
Westminster and
St George's) which provided free medical care to those who could not afford it. However, none was located to the east of the City, where it could have served the comparatively impoverished and rapidly growing population of
Spitalfields and
Whitechapel; this was the void that The London Hospital was to fill. The institution that was to become The Royal London Hospital was founded on 23 September 1740, when seven gentlemen met in the Feathers Tavern in
Cheapside in the
City of London to subscribe to the formation of an "intended new infirmary". On 3 November,
The London Infirmary opened in a house on Featherstone Street,
Moorfields. The staff consisted of one surgeon, physician and apothecary; and was operated as a voluntary hospital, in which patients were not charged for treatment and their care was funded charitably from annual subscription fees. In May 1741, the hospital moved to larger premises in Prescot Street, at that time in an exceedingly bad district. The following year,
2nd Duke of Richmond was persuaded by the hospital's surgeon, John Harrison, to become the first President of the new hospital. The purpose-built hospital, which was designed by Boulton Mainwaring
19th century In the 1870s the medical staff determined to improve the quality of nursing care and in 1880
Eva Luckes was employed as Matron of the Hospital, a post which she held for nearly forty years. She was an influential nursing leader and instigated a new programme of nurse training, including the first Preliminary Training School for Nurses. She became known by her friend and mentor Florence Nightingale (also a Governor of The London Hospital) as 'O Matron of Matrons'.
Joseph Merrick, known as the "Elephant Man", was admitted to the hospital in 1886 and spent the last few years of life there. His mounted skeleton is currently housed at the medical school, but is not on public display. 's work at the hospital
20th century In the early 20th century the hospital sent out nurses to work unsupervised in private houses through their Private Nurses Institution, established in 1886. This earned £4,000 a year, a profit of £1,700. The chair of the hospital from 1931 to 1943 was a banker,
William Henry Goschen. He led the funding of the hospital for over ten years and died there. In 1990 Queen Elizabeth II visited the hospital and added "Royal" to the name, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its founding. The present School of Nursing and Midwifery was formed in 1994 by the merger of the schools from St Bartholomew's Hospital and The Royal London Hospital to become the
St Bartholomew School of Nursing & Midwifery. Prior to this, the school of nursing was known as the Princess Alexandra College of Nursing and Midwifery. In 1995 the new Nursing School was incorporated into
City University, London.
21st century: the new hospital In March 2005 planning permission was granted for the redevelopment and expansion of The Royal London Hospital. The scheme was procured under a
Private Finance Initiative contract in 2006. Sited on the grounds of the existing hospital, the works involved the replacement of certain of the hospital's old facilities, some of which dated back to when the hospital moved to its existing site in 1757. The works also involved the creation of a new trauma and emergency care centre and substantial new renal and paediatric facilities. These works, which were designed by
HOK and undertaken by
Skanska at a cost of £650 million, opened in part in 2012 and were completed in 2016. The old hospital buildings were converted into the new
Tower Hamlets Town Hall for
Tower Hamlets Council between 2019 and 2023. In March 2020 it was reported that the 14th and 15th floors of the hospital, which were never fitted out because the trust had been unable to afford to do so, would be opened in order to provide more capacity to deal with patients during the
COVID-19 pandemic. These floors were opened in May 2020 at a cost of £24 million. == Notable alumni ==