St Bartholomew's Hospital — England's Oldest
St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London was founded in 1123 by Rahere and has provided continuous medical care on the same Smithfield site for over 900 years. In 1546, King Henry VIII re-granted Barts to the City, placing his likeness above the gatehouse—London's only public full-body statue of him. The hospital was also where physician William Harvey developed his revolutionary theory of blood circulation, published in 1628.
London · from the walk “Secret London: Hidden Alleys, Ancient Stones & Forgotten Stories” · audio ~3 min · Generated
St Bartholomew's Hospital, West Smithfield, London EC1A 7BE
- Rahere founded St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 1123 after suffering from malaria during a pilgrimage to Rome.
- Above the entrance of St. Bartholomew's Hospital stands London's only public full-body statue of King Henry VIII.
- During the Peasants' Revolt in 1381, wounded rebel leader Wat Tyler was dragged from the hospital and beheaded.
- Physician William Harvey worked at St. Bartholomew's Hospital before publishing his theory of blood circulation in 1628.
Who founded St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London in 1123?
You're standing before a building that has been healing the sick on this Exact spot for over nine hundred years. This is St. Bartholomew's Hospital... or simply, Barts. And its origin story reads like a medieval fairy tale.......... The year is eleven twenty-three. A man named Rahere... who Was this man, exactly? Sources call him a courtier, a minstrel, perhaps even a jester in the court of King Henry the First. His medieval biographer tells us he won friends by soothing them "with jokes and flatterings." But something changed. During a pilgrimage to Rome, Rahere fell desperately ill... probably with malaria. Believing he was dying, he made a vow: if he survived, he would build a hospital for London's poorest. Then, he had a vision. Saint Bartholomew himself appeared and gave very specific instructions... build at Smithfield.......... The problem? Smithfield was marshy wasteland... and the dry ground was used for executing criminals. Not exactly prime real estate. But Rahere built it anyway. It took ten years, and he ran the hospital until his death around eleven forty-three. You can still visit his ornate tomb in the nearby Priory Church of Saint Bartholomew the Great.......... Now, look up at the gatehouse. That statue above the entrance is the Only public full-body statue of King Henry the Eighth in all of London! When Henry dissolved the monasteries in fifteen thirty-nine, the hospital nearly died. But London's citizens petitioned the king, and in fifteen forty-six he granted Barts to the City. Its official legal name? "The House of the Poore in West Smithfield in the suburbs of the City of London of Henry the Eighth's Foundation." That mouthful stayed on legal documents until the National Health Service was formed in nineteen forty-eight!......... But here's a darker tale. In thirteen eighty-one, the rebel leader Wat Tyler was struck down by the Lord Mayor, William Walworth, right Here in Smithfield during the Peasants' Revolt. Badly wounded with a knife to the neck, Tyler was carried into This hospital. But the Mayor tracked him down inside, dragged him out... and had him beheaded in the square.......... And one more brilliant chapter. In sixteen oh nine, a physician named William Harvey took up his post here at Barts. It was while working at This hospital that he developed his revolutionary theory of blood circulation... overturning fourteen hundred years of medical dogma. He published his findings in sixteen twenty-eight, and it remains one of the most important discoveries in all of medicine.......... Nine centuries of continuous care, on the very same ground. From a jester's fevered vision... to the forefront of modern science. That is the extraordinary story of Barts.