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A short thread on the wonderful @GSTTnhs about St Thomas’ Hospital and its moves over the years. When the current unpleasantness is over much can be found out @OldOpTheatre a wonderful #se1 museum and one of the hospital buildings still in #Southwark . 1,
St Thomas Hospital has its origin in the 12th century founded south of ST Mary’s Priory, now @Southwarkcathed in 1215 the hospital moved to the east side of Borough High Street occupying land north of, what is now St Thomas Street, with a burial ground to the south 2,
As part of the #Thameslink #archaeology excavation @PCAarchaeology found relieving arches (sorry about the terrible photo) interpreted as probably part of the medieval hospital (the hospital used the remains of the #Roman bath on this site as a foundation ,3
St Thomas was rebuilt on this site east of Borough High Street many times, the #thameslink #archaeology word found evidence for a number of these. Until 1824 with the beginning of work on Rennie’s New London Bridge ,4
As the plate shows Borough High Street moved west. Much of the west front of St Thomas’ Hospital was rebuilt with new ward blocks and a fine courtyard to BHS. The ward block to the south is now the Post Office , 5
In the rear of the plate is London Bridge Station, at this time a terminus, but in 1857 agreement was reached to extend the line from London Bridge to Charing Cross Station through the site of St Thomas’ Hospital. ,6
Building work started on the new site behind Waterloo Station in 1868 and much of the hospital remains on site today, and is grade II listed https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1358293 As we have left #Southwark this is the end of my story ,7
This view, held @ExploreWellcome gives an idea of the scale of post-medieval @GSTTnhs https://wellcomecollection.org/works/dr5wss7q?wellcomeImagesUrl=/indexplus/image/V0017214.html very similar to the courtyard of Guy’s Hospital today ,8
Surviving buildings of St Thomas’ Hospital can be seen on the north side of St Thomas Street east from the @OldOpTheatre museum. The Post Office of Borough High Street is on the ground floor of a former ward block and far more can be found out @OldOpTheatre ,end
