To mark the occasion there’s a free outdoor exhibition in the City to showcase historic collections and tell new stories about the hospital’s history. It features art, photographs and historical documents from the Barts Health NHS Trust Archives and I visited the exhibition at Guildhall Yard where it will remain until 6 June.
Here are some of the images I took last Saturday.
![](https://symbolsandsecrets.london/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_6038-768x1024.jpg)
Artists played a part in recording visual evidence of disease …
![](https://symbolsandsecrets.london/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_6047-939x1024.jpg)
Not an exotic flower but a twisted intestine painted in the 1830s …
![](https://symbolsandsecrets.london/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_6040-893x1024.jpg)
The famous Hogarth staircase …
![](https://symbolsandsecrets.london/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_6044-791x1024.jpg)
The notorious Bartholomew Fair …
![](https://symbolsandsecrets.london/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_6061-1024x655.jpg)
Nearby slums in the 1920s. Women were looked after by the Barts External Midwifery Service …
![](https://symbolsandsecrets.london/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_6054-2-1024x905.jpg)
Multi-purpose head!
![](https://symbolsandsecrets.london/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_6065-696x1024.jpg)
From the extensive archive …
![](https://symbolsandsecrets.london/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_6050-768x1024.jpg)
Some examples …
![](https://symbolsandsecrets.london/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_6051-537x1024.jpg)
![](https://symbolsandsecrets.london/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_6052-652x1024.jpg)
A happy patient getting some fresh air …
![](https://symbolsandsecrets.london/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_6053-699x1024.jpg)
The terrible plague of 1664/5 …
![](https://symbolsandsecrets.london/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_6066-896x1024.jpg)
What people were dying from …
![](https://symbolsandsecrets.london/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_6069-1024x813.jpg)
‘The Rules’ …
![](https://symbolsandsecrets.london/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_6071-658x1024.jpg)
If you want to know even more about Barts and its history I highly recommend a visit to the hospital museum where, as well as fascinating exhibits, you can see Henry VIII’s signature and the Hogarth staircase. You can read more about it in my Little Museum blog.
After viewing the Guildhall Yard display, you can stroll along to the Guildhall Art Gallery …
![](https://symbolsandsecrets.london/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_6074-1024x768.jpg)
Here you will find Pomp and Circumstance Adversus, a painting by Dan Llywelyn Hall (b.1980) depicting the recent Coronation …
![](https://symbolsandsecrets.london/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_6075-1024x750.jpg)
In more detail …
![](https://symbolsandsecrets.london/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_6078-1024x727.jpg)
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