ST. THOMAS’S HOSPITAL
The commonly received opinion as to the Foundation of this Hospital is
that it sprang out of an Almonry belonging to Bermondsey Abbey, founded
in 1213 by Richard, Prior of that House. This statement was made by
Stow, and has been followed by Strype, Maitland, and others; Wilkinson,
however, does not agree with it.
According to Tanner and Dugdale, the Almonry of the Abbey, consisting
of an almshouse for converts and a school for poor boys, was attached
to the walls of the House, was dedicated to St. Thomas of Canterbury,
and was under the government of the Monastery Almoner. This Almonry
perished with the Abbey in the Dissolution, and had nothing to do with
the Hospital of St. Thomas.
It is stated by Tanner that after the Fire of 1212, which destroyed the
church of St. Mary Overies together with their Hospital or Almonry, the
Prior and brethren erected a Hospital near their ruins in which they
established their church for a time. When their own House was rebuilt,
Peter de Rupibus, Bishop of Winchester, transferred the Hospital to
the other side of the causeway for some supposed advantages of air. It
was built on ground belonging to Amicius, Archdeacon of Surrey, and
dedicated to St. Thomas the Martyr. It was always in the patronage of
the Bishop of Winchester. A list of the Masters is preserved.
Stow, however, says that the Hospital was held of the Abbey of
Bermondsey, and that in the year 1428 Thetford, then the Abbot, sold to
the Master of the Hospital the right to keep all the lands belonging to
the Abbey and then held by the Hospital at a small rent.
It is impossible to reconcile these statements unless we suppose that
the Hospital itself, always separate from, and independent of, the
Abbey, was occupying lands of the Abbey of which it desired to keep the
control.
On the Dissolution, the House was valued at a yearly income of £309:
1: 11 clear; it had a Master, Brethren, three lay sisters, and made up
forty aids for the sick with food and firing.
In 1552 the City bought the House of Edward the Sixth and opened it
again as a Hospital.
The place has little history. The brethren had at their gates the right
of market for corn and other commodities. The Archdeacon of Surrey, in
1238, had a hall, a chapel, a stable, and a residence in the Hospital.
The Bishops of Winchester claimed the right of visitation, which was
exercised on more than one occasion.
The old buildings continued until the close of the seventeenth century,
when they were taken down and the Hospital was erected in their place.
This House remained until it became necessary to destroy it, in order
to make way for the railway station and extension on its site. The
demolition of old St. Thomas’s is one of the few acts of destruction
which one can regard with satisfaction. For the removal of the Hospital
to the crowded streets of Lambeth, leaving Guy’s for the eastern part
of South London, was unquestionably a great gain to the former, and no
loss to the latter, which is fully served by Guy’s.