Royal London Hospital

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Location
The Royal London Hospital Barts and The London NHS Trust
[[Image:\| 225px \|center\|]]
Part of the front of The Royal London Hospital
Place	Whitechapel London, England, (UK)
Organisation
Care System	Public NHS
Hospital Type	Teaching
Affiliated University	Queen Mary, University of London
Services
Emergency Dept.	Yes Accident & Emergency
Beds	675
History
Founded	1740
Links
Website	Barts and The London NHS Trust Homepage
See also	Hospitals in England

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Facade of The Royal London Hospital

The Royal London Hospital was founded in September 1740 and was originally named The London Infirmary (name changed to The London Hospital in 1748 and then to The Royal London Hospital on its 250th anniversary in 1990). The first patients were treated at a house in Featherstone Street, Moorfields in November 1740. In May 1741, the hospital moved to Prescott street, and remained there until 1757 when it moved to its current location on the South side of Whitechapel Road, Whitechapel. ^[1]

The Royal London is part of the Barts and the London NHS Trust, alongside St Bartholomew's Hospital ("Barts"), located approximately two miles away. The Royal London provides district general hospital services for the City and Tower Hamlets and specialist tertiary care services for patients from across London and elsewhere. It is also the base for the HEMS helicopter ambulance service, operating out of a specially rebuilt roof area. There are 675 Beds at The Royal London Hospital.

The London Hospital Medical College, the first in England and Wales, was founded in 1785. It amalgamated in 1995 with St Bartholomews Hospital Medical College, under the aegis of Queen Mary and Westfield College, now known as Queen Mary, University of London, to become St Bartholomews and The Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry (name changed to Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry in 2007).

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. In 1995 the new Nursing School was incorporated into City University, London. Both Schools have a strong and respected history dating back over 120 years and have produced many nurse leaders and educators.

In March 2005 planning permission was granted for a £1 billion redevelopment and expansion of The Royal London Hospital. On completion of the project, the hospital will have London’s leading trauma and emergency care centre, one of Europe’s largest renal services and the capital’s second biggest paediatric service. Barts is also undergoing redevelopment and will become a cancer and cardiac centre of excellence^[2].

Joseph Merrick, known as the "Elephant Man", spent the last few years of life at The Royal London Hospital and his mounted skeleton is currently housed at the Medical School, but is no longer studied or publicly exhibited.^[3].

[edit] Royal London Museum and Archives

The Royal London has a museum which is located in the crypt of a 19th century church. It reopened to the public in 2002 after extensive refurbishment and is open to the public free of charge. The museum covers the history of the hospital since its foundation in 1740 and the wider history of medicine in the East End. It includes works of art, surgical instruments, medical and nursing equipment, uniforms, medals, documents and books. There is a forensic medicine section which includes original material on Jack the Ripper, Dr Crippen and the Christie murders. There are also displays on Joseph Merrick (the 'Elephant Man') and former Hospital nurse Edith Cavell^[4]. A former Curator of the Museum was the noted surgeon Thomas Horrocks Openshaw.^[5]

The Royal London's archives contain documents dating back to 1740, including complete patient records since 1883, but the best narrative of the hospital is probably given by W. Somerset Maugham where he describes the institution as a place of misery where the male patients are predominantly cases of alcohol related diseases, the women are mostly cases of malnutrition, and the rest are unwanted pregnancies.

The museum is a member of The London Museums of Health & Medicine.