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Hospitals in Early Modern London

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The term hospital in the early modern England, especially before the development of English poor law, referred quite generally to places that offered a range of hospitality-related functions. Before the dissolution of the monasteries began in 1536, London’s hospitals were religious institutions that not only housed and provided care for the poor, sick, and orphaned, but also provided housing for knights on pilgrimage, as with St. John’s of Jerusalem, and provided education for young children, as with St. Anthony (Rawcliffe 2). Most of these hospitals were dissolved and the sites repurposed during the dissolution of the monasteries.
As John Slack writes, the dissolution of the monasteries destroyed much of the institutional fabric which had provided charity for the poor, leaving a perceived vacuum which had somehow to be filled (Slack 16). To this end, several of the hospitals that had been taken under the possession of the crown in the dissolution were granted to the City of London. The hospital, therefore, transformed in tandem with the development of English poor law, from a religious responsibility of the churches to a secular responsibility of the city government. Accordingly, the former religious hospitals of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, Bethlehem Hospital, and St. Thomas’s Hospital were reendowed and granted to the City of London between 1544 and 1555, while new hospitals (Bridewell and Christ’s Hospital) were founded. The civic proceedings resulted in the unification of the royal hospitals. Despite the name, the unified hospital system was a civic program under the administration of the City of London. The five royal hospitals were as follows:
As recalled in the 1633 Survey, the Lord Mayor appointed a committee of 2. Aldermen and 6. Commoners, and afterward more were appointed, to the number of 24, to address the problem of poverty in London (Stow 1633, sig. 2G4r). The resulting report created three degrees of poverty, each with three subdivisions. The three general categories were poverty by impotency (unable to work because of age, blindness, or lameness), by causalty (temporarily unable due to injury or disease), or thriftlessness (which includes Rioutours, Vagabonds, and the Idle person, as Strumpets and others) (Stow 1633, sig. 2G4r). Christ’s Hospital was designated for those falling under the first category, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and St. Thomas’s Hospital for the second, and Bridewell, where the vagabond and idel Strumpet is chastised and compelled to labour, to the overthrow of the vicious life of idleness, for the third (Stow 1633, sig. 2G4r). Thus, although part of London’s civic hospitals program, Bridewell functioned more like a prison and workhouse than a hospital in the modern sense. While Bethlehem Hospital is left out of this account from the 1633 Survey, Slack, citing the 1836 Memoranda, References, and Documents relating to the Royal Hospitals of the City of London, gives a more precise account of the different hospitals’ different assignments: St Bartholomew’s for the sick, St Thomas’s for the old and impotent, Christ’s Hospital in the old Greyfrairs for the virtuous education and bringing up of orphan children and foundlings, Bethlehem Hospital for lunatics, and Bridewell for employing the idle poor (Slack 231).
Because St. Katherine’s Hospital was founded by the crown originally, it was not affected by the dissolution. Similarly, Savoy Hospital was held by the crown before the dissolution, and its status was therefore not affected by it. Edward VI granted Savoy Hospital to the City of London in 1553. Thus, to complete the list, we have Aside from these seven hospitals, most of London’s hospitals mentioned in our early modern sources were repurposed either before or during the dissolution of the monasteries. See the full list here.

References

  • Citation

    Rawcliffe, Carole. The Hospitals of Later Medieval London. Medical History. 28.1 (1984): 1–21.

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  • Citation

    Slack, Paul. English Poor Law: 1531–1782. London: MacMillan Education, 1990. Print.

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  • Citation

    Slack, Paul. Hospitals, Workhouses, and the Relief of the Poor in Early Modern London. Health Care and Poor Relief in Protestant Europe. Routledge, 1997. 229–246. Print.

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Cite this page

MLA citation

Simpson, Lucas. Hospitals in Early Modern London. The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 6.6, edited by Janelle Jenstad, U of Victoria, 30 Jun. 2021, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/HOSP1.htm.

Chicago citation

Simpson, Lucas. Hospitals in Early Modern London. The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 6.6. Ed. Janelle Jenstad. Victoria: University of Victoria. Accessed June 30, 2021. mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/HOSP1.htm.

APA citation

Simpson, L. 2021. Hospitals in Early Modern London. In J. Jenstad (Ed), The Map of Early Modern London (Edition 6.6). Victoria: University of Victoria. Retrieved from https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/editions/6.6/HOSP1.htm.

RIS file (for RefMan, RefWorks, EndNote etc.)

Provider: University of Victoria
Database: The Map of Early Modern London
Content: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

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CY  - Victoria
PB  - University of Victoria
LA  - English
UR  - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/HOSP1.htm
UR  - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/xml/standalone/HOSP1.xml
ER  -

TEI citation

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