Impressions of St. Bart’s Hospital on 9-25
The oldest hospital in Britain is St. Bart’s in London, and a restoration to its historic heritage buildings is underway., after 50 years without significant repair. I felt very lucky to have a semi-private tour of a restoration project that is ongoing. Renovating the north wing, the great hall and the Hagarth stair are Phase 1 and next year the facility will embark on Phase 2 of the project which includes a new museum. In the meantime, they have taken down what was their museum and have been working on archiving the items within and the museum will be reopened in 2025. But the focus of the tour I attended took place in the North Wing and Henry VIII Gatehouse in the Great Hall and restored the Hogarth stair. Fay McDermott, Heritage and Health Engagement Officer at Bart’s Heritage, met us and led a tour. She talked about how the room being preserved and restored was used for Functions and served to hold meetings especially of donors. Donors named are all over the paneling of the wall, w/ accompanying dates for when the donation was made and for how much.
She talked about more famous donors historically and in present time. On the main level, you could see the marble fireplace with a painting of Henry the VIIIs over the mantel and he was a reason that St. Bart’s survived. She also talked about a few other founder’s patron paintings in the space.
The doors have beautiful inlaid leaf design patterns and are embellished. The same contractor that is restoring the floors is also restoring the doors. There was scaffolding present everywhere in the space, and our tour brought us to multiple levels. On the floor level, the entire flooring was covered, stain sampling is on one of the wood panels for testing, and the paintings are covered to preserve them in situ. From the mid-level you can see the painting and work on the paneling being done.
From the upper level, a preservationist painter talked to us about the method that she uses to get the correct gold color painted onto the rosettes that are applied to the ceiling. She said that there is a lot of different aging and methods to the existing plaster ceilings and egg and dart patterns. She said that you must mix some of the gold paint with red or green in order to actually get it to match. She said that cleaning the rosette first is best done with water as a cleaning solution would be too rough on it, then she went on to explain that she would spend anywhere from a week to clean a rosette to another week or two after that to repaint it. It is clear she is taking care with the work and is methodical, takes care and evaluation in the approach she takes. The preservationist has a ladder and a large cutip and is cleaning with water when we first came up to her. Another employee is going over with filler on a donor panel removing flaking inconsistencies with the applied paint then going over it with the gold paint to match, taking care in every stroke. “
Then we went to view the Hogarth Stair embellished with 2 large paintings by William Hogarth. There was a local painter hired who lived with his family right by the Hospital, Hogarth and he wanted to establish himself so he provided the painting free of charge. The “Good Samaritan” and the “Pool of Bethesda” are both being restored. She said that in Pool of Bethesda painting Jesus is in the middle and there is a pool known for it’s healing qualities where the sickest of the members of the community bath and perform healing prayer within. She described that medical students had been tasked with reviewing the members off to each side of the painting, and diagnosing them with their ailments and they had diagnosed anemia, scabies and blindness by observing the painting. The belief is that with in the right-hand side of the painting is a dark figure representing death, to come to terms with that this is the end result of living and we must face it. The paintings are being restored by experts who are cleaning them for the most part.
At the end of the project, this entire renovated space will serve as a place of staff respite to aid in their wellbeing and recovery as a part of their critical role in serving as care providers. This will include spaces that support programs that address staff wellbeing and psychological recovery.
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