Great Ormond Street Hospital for children, admitted it’s first patient in 1852.

• The lack of care given to sick children was lamentable in the early C19th. Children were thought to be expendable and therefore did not need hospital care.
• The population growth in London put severe strains on hospitals such as St Bartholomews and Guys Hospital and they struggled to cope with their adult patients, let alone increase the number of children treated.
• Dr Charles West, who was a principle founder of Great Ormond Street, decided therefore, to establish a hospital for children only. The first hospital was in a converted town house in Powis Place.

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