Travellers and pilgrims mainly used the hospital.
Over time hospital roles changed, they got more and more specialized in medical treatment. By the 14th century it was nearly exclusively used for this purpose, and pilgrims preferred nearby inns. By now the hospital was also used for surgery, but the monks who had originally been the staff for the hospital, didn’t want to shedd blood. Pope Alexander III advised it as incompatible with the holy office. Therefore it was carried out by barbers, who hade good contacts with the monks and were said to be very good with the knife.
The money, needed by the women’s ward, was provided by Richard (Dick) Whittington in the early 15th century.
At that time, the women’s ward was used to shelter young women who had done amiss, and keep it secret to stop their marriage being at risk.
The area, were St. Thomas’s hospital was located in, was called Southwark and lay in south London it was a poor area which was in desperate need of a hospital which charged next to nothing. For it was here where prostitutes, prison debtors and other of the kind lived; in other words the lowest of the low.
St. Thomas’s still was not like hospitals, as we know them today. It only treated people with small need; people with greater problems were feared, not accepted and simply not taken on. But with St. Thomas not taking the, as they were called at the time “incurables”, there built another problem; which was that there was no place to go for these. So in the 1720’s Guy’s hospital was built, founded by Sir Thomas Guy. This hospital took the “incurables” from the streets.
St. Thomas’s hospital is very old, it is believed to be about 450 Years old maybe even older. Its roof space was used as an exceptionally large herb garret.
Guy and St. Thomas’s hospital once were the United Borough Hospitals and not just used each other’s facilities but also let each others students attend to booths operating sessions; until 1837 when they separated.
Part of this her4b garret was used as an operating theatre, high up, so they could use the necessary daylight from a skylight. This also was the solution of the lack of gas.
The operating theatre was very small, but it needed enough space for the students to watch; that’s why it had standings. Seats would have taken in to much space.
