Saint John's Hospital for Diseases of the Skin

Saint John's Hospital was founded in 1863 by John Laws Milton at 12 Church Street, Soho (now Romilly Street). Two years later it moved to 45 Leicester Square. The justification for founding Saint John's, the second special hospital for diseases of the skin in London was 'on the grounds that general hospitals had refused to institute special departments for the treatment and teaching of skin disease'. The School of Dermatology was established at the hospital by 1885. The first fifty years of the hospital's existence were marked by internal conflict, financial difficulties and public controversy culminating in the libel action brought by the Hospital Secretary, Saint Vincent Mercier, against the editor of Truth in 1889. For further information see the files of the Charity Organisation Society Enquiry Department (ref. A/FWA/C/D17/1-5).

In 1883 the hospital opened a separate inpatients department at Markham Square, Kings Road, Chelsea. This closed in 1886 and both in-patients and out-patients moved to 49 Leicester Square in 1887. A new in-patients department was opened in 1895 at Arlington House, 262 Uxbridge Road, Hammersmith. The outpatients department was rebuilt in 1905 at 49 Leicester Square and then moved in 1935 to its present premises at 5 Lisle Street, Leicester Square.

Saint John's Hospital benefited from the founding in 1923 of the London School of Dermatology based at the hospital. This was taken over by the Institute of Dermatology in 1946. Saint John's Hospital became part of the National Health Service in 1948 and was designated as one of the fourteen post graduate teaching hospitals.

The in-patient department of the hospital at Uxbridge Road had been forced to close after being severely damaged by bombing in September 1940. In 1952 the disused part of the Eastern Fever Hospital at Homerton was made available to Saint John's for the admission of in-patients. Additional wards and laboratories were opened at Homerton between 1953 and 1961. In 1982 Saint John's Hospital became part of the West Lambeth Health Authority. The in-patient department and Institute of Dermatology moved from Homerton to Saint Thomas' Hospital and the Lambeth Hospital site by February 1987. The outpatient department moved from Lisle Street to Saint Thomas' Hospital in 1989.