The hospital was established in 1173 and dissolved in 1540. The infirmary assumed the name of St Thomas the Martyr shortly after his canonization in 1173. St Thomas the Martyr (St. Thomas Becket) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170 (he was slaughtered by the King’s knights).
Following a disastrous fire in 1212, the priory and the hospital developed quite separately. The site opposite the priory in Long Southwark (later known as Borough High Street) was acquired by the hospital in 1215 and occupied until 1862.
During the Reformation in 1540 the hospital, along with many other religious foundations, was dispossessed of its revenues and closed. The Hospital was refounded by royal charter in 1551, one of five major endowed royal hospitals established in London in the mid-sixteenth century, which also include Bridewell. The hospital re-opened with 120 beds and three Barber Surgeons, assisted by apprentices, were appointed, possibly marking the beginning of St Thomas's Hospital Medical School.
In 1649 Thomas Wharton (1614- 1673) was appointed an anatomist at St Thomas’ Hospital. His work gave the first thorough account of the glands of the human body, which Wharton classified as excretory, reductive, and nutrient. In 1657, Wharton was appointed physician to St Thomas’s Hospital, London, a post he held for the rest of his life.
St Thomas’ Hospital taught students from the 16th century. In 1726. St Thomas offered teaching as a joint undertaking with Guy’s Hospital.
In 1859 Florence Nightingale became involved with Saint Thomas' setting up on this site her famous nursing school, the Nightingale Training School.
History of St Thomas's Hospital
