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the spot where the late Hospital was. He dedicated the new Hospital to St.
Thomas the Martyr, and endowed it with £344 per year.* The antiquity of the
institution, and the present pressing need, have been alike disregarded by some of
the Governors ; who moreover appear to be entirely without popular confidence
in almost all that they have done in the late proceedings. The Hospital will
probably be rebuilt at Stangate; a site objectionable for many reasons, not
suitable for Southwark, or the eastern and southern districts of the Borough of
Lambeth; and still less suitable for the people of the City districts, who in 1861
appear to have furnished about one fourth of the in-patients. Notwithstanding
this, the Committee congratulates the Parishes upon the abandonment of the
contemplated scheme of placing St. Thomas's Hospital in the country: which
scheme was not abandoned until the Committee had actively interfered.
That it was intended by the Governors to obtain, if possible, a distant site
for the Hospital, notwithstanding the assertions of some of them to the contrary,
is evident. first, from the second clause of the St. Thomas's Hospital Act, 1862,
wherein the Governors had insisted upon and obtained, the power to purchase land
not exceeding fifty acres; it being of course known that no such quantity could be
obtained in London, or its immediate suburbs and Second, the Governors having
circulated officially, and formally recommended a pamphlet, entitled " What are
the best situations for our Metropolitan Hospitals ?" In which pamphlet it is in
one place stated, that our Hospitals "Should be in the first place at a distance from
town ; " and indirectly, in another page, that such distance should be " certainly
not within six miles of London Bridge." Thus we may see what we have escaped.
Prior to the formal appointment of a standing Committee, the Parishes had been
represented by deputations, one to Lord Redesdale, as the Chairman of Committees
on private bills in the House of Lords. and one to a Committee of the
House of Commons. Deputations of the Committee have had several interviews
with the Governors of the Hospital. It was urged, firstly, that the Hospital
should not be built out of London. and secondly, that the sites known as the
Surrey Gardens, the ground behind Newington Church, and that occupied by
Bethlem would either of them meet the wants of the localities, and satisfy the
Parishes. It was also urged that the population of these localities at the time the
Hospital was founded was probably under 20,000, and that now having increased
to half a million, it was unreasonable to deprive them of a Charity relieving annually
more than 40,000 poor people, and expending about £30,000. The Committee
had also an interview with Earl Shaftesbury. His Lordship received them
very graciously; he presented their petition to the House of Lords, and made a
very energetic and admirable speech on the occasion. He urged, as Chairman of
the Lunacy Commissioners, that Bethlem if removed into the country could maintain
twice the number of patients at the present cost, and could admit patients
much worse, and with fewer restrictions than is now done.
A charitable citizen, Mr. H. W. Peek, had just before offered to give 70 acres
of land near Croydon, admirably suited for the purpose : upon conditions, that
Bethlem should be rebuilt there, —that St Thomas's should be rebuilt at Bethlem,
—and that the value of the land should be handed over to the London Hospital,
a very poor charity in the eastern outskirts of London, to which, if enlarged by
this means, the large number of St. Thomas's patients north of the Thames, might
have had convenient access. It moreover appeared to be quite within the scope
of the St. Thomas's charter to have thus insured further Hospital aid to the poor
of that part of London and its suburbs. This great opportunity was ill received,
and was, strange as it may seem, allowed to pass away. When it is considered
that 63 of the Governors of Bethlem Hospital, are also Governors of St. Thomas's
the omission seems particularly ungracious, and indeed seems to fall very far
short of the spirit of the charge devolving on them, " that they would be faithful
and true distributors and dispensers of the goods of Almighty God to his poor and
needy members."
Mainning and Bray's Surrey, Vol. 3, pp. 614, 615.
Phillips's History of Bermondsey, p. 34.
folding's Historical Account of St. Thomas's Hospital, p. 15.
MS. Notes by the late G. R. Corner, Esq.
1 Order of Hospitals, 1557.