The
Lock Hospital on Hyde Park Corner was part of Christ's
Hospital, and treated those suffering from syphilis.
The
name 'Lock' derives from a former
hospital which was situated in Southwark and which
in medieval times housed lepers. 'Locks', or rags, covered
the lepers' lesions, so the hospital came to be known
as Lock Hospital. When leprosy became extinct in England,
Lock Hospital in Southwark treated venereal diseases instead.
It closed in 1760, but later hospitals which dealt with
venereal diseases were often known as Lock.
See
also the Lock Hospital
in Kingsland.
