St Thomas's Hospital

St Thomas's Hospital had its beginnings in the Priory of St Mary Overie, [1200], situated in Southwark. In 1212 the building was destroyed by fire, and was rebuilt as St Thomas's Hospital in 1215, dedicated to St Thomas à Becket. Until the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, the Hospital of St Thomas the Martyr was an independent Augustinian House devoted to the care and cure of the sick poor. In 1540 the Hospital was closed and revenues forfeited. King Edward VI restored the Hospital in 1551, which was then known as the Hospital of King Edward VI and of St Thomas the Apostle, as Thomas à Becket, who had been canonized by Pope Alexander III, had by then been decanonized. The Hospital was rebuilt again in 1693. A piece of ground was rented from St Thomas's by Thomas Guy, and in 1722 he built a new Hospital, now known as Guy's. In this manner the `United Hospitals' of St Thomas's and Guy's came about, and the partnership existed from 1768 to 1825. The split between St Thomas's and Guy's occurred in 1825. The Nightingale School of Nursing, founded by Florence Nightingale, opened at St Thomas's Hospital in 1860. In 1919 the Nightingale School and the St John School merged, at first known as the Nursing Association of St John and St Thomas, until the two institutions rapidly integrated and identity was lost. In 1948 St Thomas's Hospital was managed by London Regional Hospital Board (Teaching), acting through a Hospital Management Committee. In 1974 St Thomas's District Health Authority (Teaching) was formed, under the Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham Area Health Authority (Teaching) which in 1982 became West Lambeth District Health Authority, and from 1993 became Guy's and St Thomas's Hospital National Health Service Trust. In 1993 the Nightingale School of Nursing of St Thomas's Hospital and Guy's Hospital, and Normanby College, combined to form the Nightingale Institute. The United Medical and Dental School (UMDS) of Guy's and St Thomas's merged with King's College London in 1998, leading to the Department of Nursing Studies at King's being amalgamated with the Nightingale Institute, with a consequent name change to the Florence Nightingale Division of Nursing and Midwifery. In 1999 the Division became the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery.