Victorian London - Health and Hygiene - Hospitals - St. George's Hospital

St. George's Hospital at Hyde Park Corner, a noble pile, containing 350 beds; this and the Westminster Hospital, opposite Westminster Abbey, an elegant Gothic edifice, containing 230 beds, although of old foundation, have both been recently erected.

Mogg's New Picture of London and Visitor's Guide to it Sights, 1844

GEORGE'S (ST.) HOSPITAL, HYDE PARK CORNER, at the top of Grosvenor-place. An hospital for sick and lame people, supported by voluntary contributions; built by William Wilkins, R.A., architect of the National Gallery, on the site of Lanesborough House, the London residence of
"Sober Lanesbro' dancing with the gout;" converted into an Infirmary in 1733. ... John Hunter, the physician, died (1793) in this Hospital.

Peter Cunningham, Hand-Book of London, 1850

ST. GEORGE'S HOSPITAL, Hyde Park Corner, on the site of the Earl of Lanesborough's house, was built by Wilkins, the architect of the National Gallery. The Museum of the Hospital contains a very valuable collection of specimens.
    There are twenty-seven wards, with beds for 330 patients, and relieves nearly 14,000 cases annually. Income, about 10,000l. year.

Cruchley's London in 1865 : A Handbook for Strangers, 1865

see also Andrew Wynter in Our Social Bees - click here

ST. GEORGE'S HOSPITAL, Hyde-Park Corner, originated with a party of dissentient Governors of Westminster hospital, who, in 1733, converted Lanesborough house, Grosvenor-place, into an Infirmary. Pennant describes the old mansion as the country-house of
    "The sober Lanesborow dancing, in the gout"
hence also the quaint distich inscribed on the house-front
    "It is my delight to be    
    Both in town and country."
    The Hospital has been rebuilt; architect, Wilkins, R.A., 1831; the grand front, facing the Green Park, is very elegant. William Hunter was a surgical pupil at St. George's in 1741, when he resided with the eminent Smellie, at that time an apothecary in Pall Mall. William's brother, John Hunter, was appointed surgeon to St. George's in 1768; and here, in 1793, he died of disease of the heart.

John Timbs, Curiosities of London, 1867

St. George's Hospital on the corner of Grosvenor Place, one of the best of the medical schools in the metropolis, was founded in 1733, and is particularly noted as the place in which the great surgeon John Hunter practised and died (1793). It contains 350 beds and has a country branch at Wimbledon with 100 beds.

Herbert Fry, London, 1889