A history of City St George’s

St George’s Hospital opens in Lanesborough House at Hyde Park Corner.

A medical school is established on Kinnerton Street in a house purchased by surgeon Benjamin Brodie.

The official opening ceremony for the medical school, named St George’s Hospital Medical School, is held and features the dissection of an ancient Egyptian mummy.

St George’s Hospital Medical School becomes a constituent college of the University of London.

The Inns of Court School of Law is founded. This is one of the earliest providers of legal education in London and becomes a part of City St George’s Law School in 2001.

St George’s Hospital Medical School on Kinnerton Street is moved to the hospital site at Hyde Park Corner. The hospital and medical school have shared a site ever since.

St Bartholomew School of Nursing and Midwifery is founded in affi liation with London’s oldest hospital, St Bartholomew’s. It was later incorporated into the School of Health and Medical Sciences.

The Northampton Institute is founded and still forms the main part of the Clerkenwell campus in the present day. The land is bequeathed by the Marquess of Northampton, and the Earl of Compton and generous benefactors include the Worshipful Company of Skinners and the Worshipful Company of Saddlers.

The Northampton Institute (also then known as Northampton Polytechnic Institute) introduces courses in Aeronautical Engineering, the fi rst off ered in the UK.

The Northampton Institute plays a key role in the First World War with staff and students producing munitions, military optical aids and parts for radio telegraphic stations. Following the fi ght of the ‘St George’s four’, St George’s Hospital Medical School admits its fi rst female students to aid with wartime staff shortages.

The Department of Optometry and Visual Sciences is founded at the Northampton Institute, making it one of the fi rst establishments in the world to educate optometrist, joining St George’s Hospital Medical School, which had been teaching Opthalmic surgery since the late 1800s.

St George’s Hospital becomes a unit of the Emergency Hospital Service, providing 200 beds for war casualties and 65 beds for the civilian sick. Meanwhile the Northampton Institute provides training courses for members of the armed forces in skills ranging from optics manufacturing to wireless mechanics.

The Northampton Institute becomes a university when The City University is created by Royal Charter. Dr James Tait is appointed as the fi rst Vice-Chancellor and Oliver Thompson as the fi rst Pro-Chancellor. The Lord Mayor of London is invited to be the Rector of The City University, which is an arrangement that continues today.

The first phase of the new St George’s Hospital and accompanying medical school opens in Tooting with 80 students.

St George’s Hospital at Hyde Park Corner closes its doors for the final time. HM Queen Elizabeth II formally opens the new St George’s Hospital and Medical School in Tooting.

St Bartholomew’s School of Nursing and Midwifery and the Charterhouse College of Radiography are incorporated into The City University, later forming part of the School of Health and Medical Sciences.

On St George’s Day, the medical school formally changes its name to St George’s, University of London.

City doubles the proportion of its total academic staff producing research of world-leading or internationally excellent quality in the national Research Excellence Framework.

St George’s appoints its fi rst female Principal, Professor Jenny Higham, a consultant gynecologist who is also Chair of the Medical Schools Council.

The City University joins the University of London federation as an independent institution of the collegiate university and becomes City, University of London.

Staff and students, particularly from the School of Health Sciences (now the School of Health & Medical Sciences), support efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. St George’s becomes a major centres in the UK for testing COVID-19 vaccines for safety and effectiveness, with staff and students contributing to research and working on the frontlines.

Professor Anthony Finkelstein is appointed as City’s President.

The prestigious conservatoire of dance and musical theatre Urdang Academy becomes part of City.

City and St George’s merge to become City St George’s, University of London, one of the major London centres for higher education and research.