West
view of the Lock Hospital and its chapel, Kingsland (as
opposed to the Lock
Hospital in Southwark or on Hyde
Park Corner, Kingsland being partly in the parish of
Hackney and partly in the parish of Islington). The hospital
was established during the reign of Henry VIII to accommodate
Londoners suffering from venereal disease, it being thought
at that time it was contagious via air and sufferers needed
to be distanced from the city. The hospital had a chaplain,
a a surgeon, a sister, a nurse, and a helper and contained
about twenty beds (the whole constructed, apparently, so
that no one patient could see any other patient).
In
1611 this Hospital was called Kingsland Spittle. By the
early 19th century the hospital building had been long disused
and was the residence of a corn merchant. Over the door
were the armorial bearings of St Bartholomew's Hospital.
Below
is a view of the interior of the chapel.
