I’d only ever had glimpses of these two Bart’s Hospital delights but now they have been beautifully restored. The Great Hall and Hogarth Stair are now open to the public every Monday & Tuesday from 10am to 4pm, plus the first Sunday of every month, also from 10am to 4pm.
Coming from Smithfield, you first walk through the Henry VIII Gatehouse …
It incorporates London’s only outside statue of the King. In it he is sporting his usual impressively large codpiece …
Follow the signs to the magnificent North Wing …
Enter by the massive door on the right, look up, and prepare to be astonished …
In 1733, when William Hogarth heard that the governors of the hospital were considering commissioning the Venetian artist, Jocopo Amigoni, to paint a mural in the newly constructed North Wing, he offered his own services free. Always insecure about his social status, it was a gesture of largesse that made him look good and provided the opportunity for Hogarth to prove that an English artist could excel in the grand historical style.
Entitled The Pool of Bethesda, one painting shows a scene from St. John’s Gospel in which Christ heals a man who has been unable to walk for 38 years. The pool in Jerusalem was famed for its healing properties: periodically the water would be disturbed, supposedly by an angel, and whoever first entered the pool afterwards would be cured …
It is widely believed that Hogarth used patients from the wards of Bart’s as his models for the crowd of sick and injured people gathered around the pool. There is no evidence for this in the Hospital’s archives, but the realism of the portraits makes it highly believable. They are not pretty!
For example …
In his blog about the mural, The Gentle Author writes : on the extreme left we begin with two poor women. Some art historians believe the first represents Down’s Syndrome, to use the contemporary description. Another opinion suggests that the forearms of the two women, side by side, one fat and one thin, illustrate two forms of Consumption or Tuberculosis – whereby the thin woman has Phthisis which causes the body to waste, while the fat woman has the Scrofulous form that causes weight gain. The man with the stick is undeniably Blind. The fourth figure, with the anxious yellowish face may have Jaundice, or alternatively this could represent Melancholia, or Depression as we would call it. The bearded man with the red complexion has Gout, while the sling may be on account of a Sceptic Elbow Joint. The distressed woman beside him has an injured breast which may be Mastitis or an Abscess. Meanwhile, the child on the ground below this group has a curved spine and holds a crutch to indicate Rickets.
There is nefarious activity going on …
In the background, a man is accepting a bribe from the servant of the naked woman with the wanton attitude on the right of the composition, this is to push the mother with the sick baby out of the way so that his mistress can get to the healing water of the pool first. The reason for her unscrupulous haste is that she has a Sexually Transmitted Disease, most likely Gonorrhea, indicated by the rashes upon her knees and elbows. Finally, we complete the sorry catalogue with the pitiful man with the swollen abdomen on the extreme right of the canvas, he has Liver Cancer. It might not be cheerful, and it probably isn’t one of Hogarth’s greatest works, but I still think it’s splendid.
On the left of the stair is another painting donated by Hogarth entitled The Good Samaritan …
This painting depicts the parable of the Good Samaritan told in Saint Luke’s Gospel, chapter 10, verses 25–37. The wounded traveller reclines against a rock, a bandage around his left forearm, while the Samaritan bends over him anointing a wound.
The two murals are outliers in Hogarth’s back catalogue. He never painted on such a huge scale again, and the works were meant to be inspirational to visitors who might then donate to the hospital.
Next to delight you at the top of the stair is the Great Hall …
The North Wing was the first part rebuilt by James Gibbs in his modernisation of the medieval hospital between 1738 and 1769 which delivered the elegantly-proportioned quadrangle at the heart of the complex. Here in the Great Hall three thousand names are recorded of the benefactors who made this possible …
Dating from the 17th century, The Charter Window was originally located in the medieval hall of the hospital before moving into the current Great Hall in the 1840s. It depicts Henry VIII giving the charter of the hospital to Thomas Vicary, a physician and surgeon who became the Hospital’s first Superintendent …
It was partially damaged in the Second World War and has had a number of restorations to it over the centuries, with possibly only the bottom portion being original 17th century.
The Henry VIII fireplace …
Rahere, the founder of the Priory and the Hospital …
You’ll see that Prince Albert donated £30 – which seems a bit stingy to be honest.
The lovely man who donated Waterlow Park to the public …
The park was leased by Waterlow to Bart’s in 1872 to use as a home for recovering patients, and this remained the case until 1883. In 1889 he donated it to the London County Council to provide a ‘Garden for the gardenless’.
Here’s his statue in the park itself …
He’s prepared for inclement weather with hat, overcoat and neatly-furled umbrella. In his left hand are the keys to the park in the process of being handed over to the public.
As you walk back towards Smithfield you pass the St Bartholomew’s Hospital Museum. It has this donation box outside the door …
Do visit if you have the time, it’s absolutely fascinating. For example, included in this cabinet are instruments from the 1820s used for breaking up bladder stones, a wooden head for practicing trepanning (drilling holes in the skull), a surgeon’s amputation kit and a leg prosthesis for a child …
There is also this impressive document on vellum recording the agreement between Henry VIII and the City of London dated 27 December 1546 (just a month before his death). In it he promises to grant to the City the hospital and the church, in return for which the City will provide care for 100 poor men and women. It bears Henry VIII’s seal, the king charging into battle on horseback accompanied by a dog …
… along with his signature …
Virtually next door to the museum is the church of St Bartholomew the Less, with its beautiful stained glass windows commemorating doctors and nurses who gave their lives in the Second World War …
Also nearby is St Bartholomew the Great which contains the font used for Hogarth’s baptism on 28 November 1697 along with an extraordinary sculpture by Damien Hurst and many other wonderful features …
Finally, an update on the Silk Street flower beds. The gardeners told me that they are putting in over 2,000 flowers and bulbs to keep the space looking good for the next year!
If you would like to follow me on Instagram here is the link …