Talk:London Lock Hospital

Untitled
Not London's first hospital of its kind!

London had an earlier Lock Hospital, an isolation hospital for women with sexually transmitted diseases, on the north side of the Old Kent Road (then called the Kent Road). The Reverend John Bethune, curate of St Michael’s, Cornhill, was appointed chaplain around 1711 (1). It appears on Rocque’s maps, originally published between 1744 and 1746 (2).

Sources (1) “The Scottish Antiquary”, Volume 8, pages 187 to 191, by James Ronaldson Lyell (1894) (2) “Old and New London”, Volume 6, pages 248 to 255, by Edward Walford (1878), accessed on 30 Jan 2009 at www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45279

86.136.79.120 (talk) 15:40, 31 January 2009 (UTC)

Move from London Dock Hospital
Many websites list the UK's first venerial disease clinic aa being at the 'London Dock Hospital', but these are all copied entries from one another. This is not helped by many of the sites taking their information from here at wikipedia. The correct name for the hospital was the 'London Lock Hospital' and it was never associated with any of the London Docks. However there was a separate 'Albert Dock Seamen's Hospital' that was the first hospital for tropical diseases.

I shall move the article over and expand on the details of its history. David Ruben Talk 15:32, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Date founded 1746?
According to, the founding date is 1746. Where does the Jan. 31st date for 1747 come from? --HappyCamper 03:09, 19 May 2006 (UTC)


 * If I recall correctly from the British History Online reference given, although my browser today seems unable to gain access to the page (?a cookie problem) - whilst idea for the hospital was so conceived in 1746, its actual opening was in January of the following year. I obviously need to come back to this when I've regained access to the BHO website. David Ruben Talk 11:06, 19 May 2006 (UTC)


 * The reference I could find in the British History Online used the same phrase "founded in 1746". If I missed a better reference, please add it. In the mean time I changed the wording to reflect the founding date. Ucanlookitup 13:08, 21 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Sorry - see the Orlando Project reference which states "31 January 1747 - The London Lock Hospital for sexually transmitted diseases opened. - A charity society had been working to establish this hospital since July 1746 and bought for it in November a house near Hyde Park Corner in London."
 * So the charity to form the hospital was founded in 1746, but the hospital itself opened in early 1747. I do not know the name of the initial charity, but the article is clearly more about the hospital than its owners/governers, and I think the quoted date should be for the hospital treating patients (which is what mattered). David Ruben Talk 01:16, 22 May 2006 (UTC)
 * That (Orlando) source no longer exists online, so I've removed it. In any event, as a recent Canadian 'authority', it cannot be valid without an English precedent which remains to be identified—most likely in the Hospital records at the Royal College of Surgeons. Since someone must have looked it up, we should let the date stand until properly verified. Bjenks (talk) 05:37, 19 September 2016 (UTC)

Confusion
We say that the hospital couldn't 'effect cures' (at least at first), yet it was founded to treat syphilis. What was it doing if it wasn't curing people? Also, what happened in 1952? How did the hospital cease to exist, and why? Skittle 11:55, 31 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Initially syphilis was incurable and the only options were incarceration (hence the word "Lock"). As syphilis states "The insanity caused by late-stage syphilis was once one of the more common forms of dementia; this was known as the general paresis of the insane". As for the hospital's demise, I do not know, but i suspect that "by 1947 penicillin had become the standard treatment of syphilis" would have had a large impact on the service needs. Also, and here I am guessing, I suspect the Paddington hospital was merged into the local St Mary's Hospital, London. David Ruben Talk 22:06, 23 May 2007 (UTC)