St. Mark's Hospital

Did you know that writer Charles Dickens was sufferig from fistulae at the rectum. And that he is linked to St. Mark's Hospital. He, as well a the Lord Mayor, William Taylor Copeland, were grateful patients of Frederick Salmon, the fistula expert of his time and founder of St. Mark's hopital. Charles Dickens blamed his need for Salmon's surgical attentions on 'too much sitting at my desk'! There was an overwhelming need for specialist treatment for fistulae, free of charge to London's poor. Therefore, in 1838, when the number of patients had trebled, Salmon moved to larger premises at 38 Charterhouse Square, where there were fourteen beds and more space for treating out-patients. Thirteen years later, a site in City Road was purchased from the Dyers' Company and the almshouses that occupied it were converted to a 25-bed hospital. This was opened on St Mark's Day, 25 April 1854, and took the name of St Mark's Hospital for Fistula and other Diseases of the Rectum.

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