Royal Free Hospital

The Royal Free Hospital (also known simply as the Royal Free) is a major teaching hospital in the Hampstead area of the London Borough of Camden. The hospital is part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, which also runs services at Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital and a number of other sites. The trust is a founder member of the UCLPartners academic health science centre. History Early history What became the Royal Free Hospital was founded in 1828 by the surgeon William Marsden to provide free care to those of little means. It is said that one evening, Marsden found a young girl lying on the steps of St. Andrew Church, Holborn, dying from disease and hunger and sought help for her from one of the nearby hospitals. However, none would take the girl in and she died two days later. After this experience Marsden set up a small dispensary at 16 Greville Street, Holborn, called the London General Institution for the Gratuitous Care of Malignant Diseases. The hospital became the London Free Hospital in 1833, and the Free Hospital in 1835. A royal charter was granted by Queen Victoria in 1837 to what then became the Royal Free Hospital, after it was the only hospital to stay open during the 1826–1837 cholera epidemic and had cared for many victims.