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Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry
  1. Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry
  2. About us
  3. Our history

Our history

In 1785, Sir William Blizard established England’s first medical school, The London Hospital Medical College, to improve the health of east London’s inhabitants. Together with St Bartholomew’s Medical College, founded by John Abernethy in 1843 to help those living in the City of London, these two historic institutions are the bedrock of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary’s faculty of Medicine and Dentistry.

Garrod building

We have a long, proud and distinctive history stretching back to 1785

Historical timeline

St Bartholomew’s Hospital is founded to help the poor of West Smithfield in the suburbs of the City of London.

1123

The London Hospital, known as the London Infirmary, is founded to help poor communities living in London’s East End.

1740

The London Hospital Medical College is founded; it is England's first official medical school. One of the founders is Sir William Blizard, renowned for his teaching of anatomy, physiology and surgery.

1785

St. Bartholomew’s Medical School is formally recognised with the building of a lecture theatre. Up until then, surgeon John Abernethy, one of the school’s founders, gave lectures in his home.

1791

St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College is established.

1843

Elizabeth Blackwell enrols for classes at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College. She goes on to become was the first woman to get a medical degree in the US, and a champion of medical education for women.

1850

The London and St Bartholomew's became constituent bodies under the University of London.

1900

The Dental School at the London Hospital opens.

1911

Royal Commission on Medical Education is established creating a link between the two medical colleges.

1968

The Medical College of St. Bartholomew's and The London Hospital Medical College merge to become Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

1992

Queen Mary and Westfield College merge with Bart’s and the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

1995

The Centre of the Cell, the world's first science education centre located within a working research laboratory, opens at the Blizard Institute of Cell and Molecular Science.

2009

Queen Mary becomes one of the 24 leading UK universities who make up the prestigious Russell Group.

2012

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Our institutes

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Medical student registers

View registers of medical students at St Bartholomew's Hospital (1906-1934)

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St Bartholomew's hospital journal

Explore the journal documenting the student life and experience from 1893 onwards

St-Bartholomew-Hospital-Journal

Record of dissected bodies

Explore how bodies were acquired for medical education from 1832 onwards. 
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