Nicholas Revett
Architect
Born May 1721
Died 3rd June 1804
Inscription reads:
St George’s Hospital was established on this site in 1733 in a country home built in 1719 by James Lane,
2nd Viscount Lanesborough. The hospital was located in the village of Knightsbridge due to the
reputation for healthy country air. The three-storey red brick hospital was of simple design and wings
were later added to the structure by architect Isaac Ware. St George’s Hospital quickly outgrew
Its original building and in 1826, the trustees commissioned William Wilkins to design a new hospital.
Wilkins was also the architect for the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square and University College.
Completed in the early 1830s, Wilkins’ building was designed In the classical style from drawings by
Nicholas Revett of the choragic monument to Thrassylus at the Acropolis, Athens. Many of the fathers
of modern medicine studied, practiced and taught at St George’s Hospital and its medical school
founded in 1831. Chief among these was John Hunter, the father of scientific surgery. Other
well-known medical pioneers with careers at St George’s include Edward Jenner, a pioneer of
immunology, Thomas Young, professor of natural philosophy to the Royal Institution and Henry Gray
renowned for his comprehensive study of anatomy. During World War II, the entire hospital was given
over to casualties of war. The hospital and those who worked there escaped injury due to the war with
the exception of a thousand pound bomb that fell on the lecture theatre of the medical school, but
fortunately failed to explode. The campaign to rebuild the hospital outside the centre of London began
during World War II. During the 1950s, the hospital was offered a site in Tooting for the new
St George’s Hospital and building began there in the 1970s. St George’s moved to its new buildings in
Tooting South West London in 1980. This historic building has now been carefully restored during an
extensive four-year project (1988-1991) and transformed into a magnificent hotel which takes the name
of the former Lanesborough House on this site.
