NATURE 
201 


THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1871 

THE NEW HOSPITAL OF ST. THOMAS 
EW more marvellous creations of constructive art 
have burst in rapidly maturing beauty upon the eye 
than the noble wés-d@-vzs which now faces the Palace of 
Westminster, and looks across the Thames at it from the 
opposite stretch of Embankment, rendering the site which 
is centred by Mr. Page’s graceful bridge, one of the most 
remarkable that is to be found in the chief cities of the 
world. The Hospital may possibly be held to be subordi- 
nate to the Palace in dignity and grandeur of external form ; 
but in two particulars it must be admitted to be in no way 
inferior to its rival. It is dedicated to a purpose of 
highest and purest beneficence, the alleviation of human 
suffering, and to unceasing conflict with one of the most 
potent of the powers of physical evil; and it is a chef- 
@euvre of perfection and completeness for the ac- 
complishment of the end to which it is destined. Within 
thirty-one short months this vast building has been so far 
advanced under the hands of a staff of nearly goo work- 
men, that it is now quite possible to take a comprehensive 
view of the purpose and plan of its designers, and fairly 
to contemplate in its most advanced form the idea of what 
a public Hospital should be in these days of scientific de- 
velopment and conquest. 
It is a matter of notoriety, that after a period of per- 
plexity and doubt,—during which it seemedat least proble- 
matical whether the old Hospital of Edward VI., which 
had been ejected from its primary home near the southern 
end of London Bridge by the remorseless demands for 
increased railway access on that side of the metropolis 
might not be scattered into disjointed fragments for want 
ofa sufficiently spacious central site, where its functions 
might be efficiently and conveniently resumed after the 
old fashion and upon the old scale,—it has been found 
practicable to give ita new habitation in Lambeth, in a 
position in no sense inferior in promise of direct useful- 
ness to the one it previously occupied in the borough of 
Southwark, and in many particulars with a marked and 
unquestionable accession of advantages in the change. 
In accomplishing this task, it was wisely determined, 
after due deliberation upon all the interests involved, so to 
use the great opportunity as‘to show to the world what is 
required by the present conditions of sanitary and medical 
science in a Hospitalerected for the study and cure of 
disease and casual injury. This, of course, could only be 
accomplished at some cost in the matter of money and 
space. But it was held that a very considerable measure 
of compensation might be at once effected by the adoption 
cf very perfect organisation and very complete mecha- 
nical contrivance ; and that beyond this any money out- 
lay which establishes a model of perfection in Hospital 
construction and arrangements, must be admitted to be a 
wise and sound investment for the community on other 
grounds. 
The most casual observer of the external aspects of this 
vast pile of building will at once perceive that the funda- 
mental idea of the plan is the breaking up of the structure 
into a series of subordinate blocks, which must allow of 
themost thorough and ready permeation of freshair to every 
VOL, III. 

part of the inhabited interior. The d2.2 édza/ of the ward of 
a Hospital is that it shall be a spacious room, constructed 
with due regard to the number of inmates it is allowed 
to accommodate, open on all sides to the fresh blasts of 
Heaven. The problem in this individual case has been to 
determine how several hundreds of inmates can be lodged 
in a building placed in a densely inhabited part of a great 
city, without violence being done to this fundamental 
necessity. In the new Hospital of St. Thomas nine dis- 
tinct blocks of buildings have been spread along the 
immediate Embankment of the river, from the end of 
the bridge at Westminster to the Archbishop’s Palace at 
Lambeth, in such a way that they have the open space 
overlooking the broad channel of the Thames at one side, 
and a roomy thoroughfare connecting the Westminster 
Bridge Road with Lambeth at the other. These blocks 
are of elongated form, their longest dimensions lying 
transversely to the course of the river, so that their ends 
look down upon the stream ; their sides being severed by 
intermediate areas of clear space. Each block, in the 
main, is simply a stack of long single wards with 
windows at each side, placed one upon the other. But 
these wards are bulbous, or enlarged, at the river 
ends, for the sake of architectural effect, and for pur- 
| poses of convenience which will be hereafter men- 
tioned. But for almost the entire extent of their 
longest dimensions they are purely single long rooms 
pierced by spacious windows at both sides. On the ends 
opposite to the river these blocks are, in the lower flats, 
connected together by corridors contrived for the pur- 
pose of interior communication; but, throughout the 
upper flats the isolation of the blocks, and, therefore, the 
permeability to free air, is complete. Further reference 
will have presently to be made to the admirable way in 
which the work of necessary communication has been 
managed. 
In broad outline the plan of the arrangement is, there- 
fore, that which is presented to the eye in the sketch on 
the following page. 
With respect to these blocks, it may be stated that 
No. 5 isthe Central Hall, with entrance from the Lambeth 
Road, and the Chapel. No. 1 is the administrative 
block, consisting of the Governor’s rooms and the 
Treasurer’s residence, and No. 9 is the Museum and 
Medical School. The blocks 2, 3, 4, and 6, 7, 8, are, 
therefore, the Hospital proper. Each of these blocks 
consists of four flats, with an attic story above, and a 
basement story beneath. But the first floor in block 4 is 
appropriated to the accommodation of the linen and to 
the matron’s use ; and the corresponding floor in block 
6 is absorbed by the kitchen and cooking apparatus. 
Block 8 is the compartment reserved apart for contagious 
and infectious diseases, and is differently arranged to the 
other Hospital blocks. There are therefore four large 
Hospital wards in blocks 2, 3, and 7, and three large Hos- 
pital wards in blocks 4and 6, Each of these large wards 
in the three upper flats will accommodate 28 beds. 
The first floor wards in blocks 2, 3, and 7 are necessarily 
of somewhat smaller size, and are designed for 20 beds. 
All the patients’ wards taken together, including those 
of block 8,and sundry small private wards scattered about 
the building, afford ample accommodation for six hundred 
indoor patients. 
M 
