Bart's North Wing ~ June 2026
A teaching hospital in the City of London, St Bartholomew’s was founded, along with the Priory of St Bartholomew, in 1123 by Rahere, a favourite courtier of King Henry 1st.
Rahere had travelled to Rome where he became gravely ill with the “Roman fever”. He prayed and asked God to heal and save him, vowing that if the Almighty would grant him life, he would return to England and build a hospital for everyone in the name of St Bartholomew.
It is the oldest hospital in Britain still operating on the original site. It is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust.
The hospital was not affected by the Dissolution of the of the Monasteries. Willim Harvey conducted his research on the circulatory system in the 17th century, important principles of modern surgery were developed in the 18th century, and the nursing profession advanced in the 19th century.
When the National Health Service started in 1948, it officially became known as St Bartholomew’s Hospital. It is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust.
Of the four original buildings designed by James Gibb in the 1730s, three still stand, the first built in 1732 was the Great Hall of the North Wing and the Hogarth Stair which were the main aims of our visit.
The exceptionally rare paintings in the stairwell of the The Good Samaritan (1737) and the Pool of Bethesda (1736) by Hogarth were donated by him to the hospital. The chandelier in the stairwell is an 18th-century gilded fixture donated c.1735 by John Freke, the hospital's first eye surgeon.
The Museum tells the story of nine centuries of healthcare at the edge of the City of London and holds the original 1546 agreement between King Henry VIII and the City of London.
St Bartholomew-the-Less, the earliest church near the site, was a chapel founded in 1123 to serve the priory, the hospital was moved to its current site in 1184.
Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries the church became the parish church ~ a unique situation among hospital foundations in England. It gained its title “the Less” to distinguish it from the larger church of St Bartholomew-the-Great.
The oldest parts are the 15th century tower and the west end of the church. Within the tower are three bells, the oldest being in 1380. The bells hang in the original bell frame thought to be the oldest in London.
The most famous person buried in St Bartholomew-the-Less is Thomas Bodley, the founder of the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
For more information about Bart's North Wing and visiting, go to:
