Hopital Bartholomew - Londres (Angleterre)

(Bartholomew's Hospital - London)

Gravure publiée dans The Beauties of England and Wales, 1815.

The Beauties of England and Wales , Auteur: Britton, John & Edward Wedlake Brayley - Ce livre fut publié en 18 volumes de 1801 à 1815.

St Bartholomew's Hospital, also known as Barts, is a hospital in Smithfield in the City of London, England.

It was founded in 1123 by Raherus or Rahere (died 1144, and entombed in the nearby priory church of St Bartholomew-the-Great), a favourite courtier of King Henry I. Following the dissolution of the monasteries which, although did not affect the running of Barts as a hospital, left in it a precarious position by removing its only income, it was refounded by Henry VIII in December 1546, on the signing of an agreement granting the hospital to the City of London, which was reaffirmed in the Letters Patent of January 1547 endowing it with properties and income. The hospital became legally known as the "House of the Poore in West Smithfield in the suburbs of the City of London of Henry VIII's Foundation", although the title was never used by the general public. Upon the foundation of the National Health Service in 1948, it officially became known as St. Bartholomew's Hospital.

It is the oldest surviving hospital in England and has an important current role as well as a long history and architecturally important buildings. The Henry VIII entrance to the hospital shown in the photograph is still the main public entrance; the statue of Henry VIII is the only public statue of him in London. On an adjoining wall, William Wallace, knight and Scottish patriot who led a resistance against the English occupation of Scotland during the Wars of Scottish Independence, is honoured with a plaque marking the site of his execution in 1305.

The main square was designed by James Gibbs in the 1730s, of the four original blocks only three survive, this includes the block containing the Great Hall and two flanking blocks that contained wards. The first wing to be built was the North wing, in 1732. It is the North Wing that contains the Great Hall and the Hogarth murals. The South Wing followed in 1740, the West Wing in 1752 and finally the East Wing in 1769. In 1859, a fountain was placed in its centre along with a small garden.

St Bartholomew's Hospital has existed on the same site for almost 900 years, surviving both the Great Fire of London and The Blitz. On the walls of the staircase are two stunning murals painted by William Hogarth, The Pool of Bethesda (1736) and The Good Samaritan (1737). Hogarth was so outraged by the news that the hospital was commissioning art from Italian painters that he insisted on doing these murals free of charge, as a demonstration that English painting was equal to the task. The Pool of Bethesda is of particular medical interest, as it depicts a scene in which Christ cures the sick: display material on the first floor speculates in modern medical terms about the ailments from which Christ's patients in the painting are suffering.

The room to which the staircase leads is the hospital's Great Hall, a striking double-height room in Baroque style. Although there are a few paintings inside the Great Hall, nearly all are on movable stands: the walls themselves are mostly given over to the display of the very many large, painted plaques which list, in detail, the sums of money given to the hospital by its benefactors.

Interestingly, Barts is unique amongst English hospitals, being a parish in its own right. The Anglican parish church of St Bartholomew-the-Less is the only survivor of Bart's original five chapels, which failed to survive the dissolution of the monasteries by King Henry VIII. The church has a 15th century tower and vestry.

Throughout the whole of the 19th century, the Hardwick family were major benefactors of the hospital. Thomas Hardwick Junior (1752-1825), Philip Hardwick (1792-1870), and Philip Charles Hardwick (1822-1892) were all architects/surveyors to Barts. Philip Hardwick was also employed in the rebuilding of the church of St Bartholomew-the-Less in 1823 and also contributed the fountain in the courtyard.