The hospital gate

An illustration of the gateway to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Giltspur Street, from the book 'Journeys through London, or, byways of modern Babylon' by James Greenwood, undated, c.1873. From a vantage point behind a hay wagon, Greenwood spends a day recording the people entering the hospital. He observes people with toothache, waiting to have teeth pulled, broken limbs needing to be set, two 'run-overs' and 'an Irish person severely wounded on the head with a drinking vessel'. At one point a policeman arrives in a cab with a man on a stretcher. '"Slater off a roof!" exclaims the policeman, shortly; and, gently handled by a dozen willing hands, as though he were a baby, the pallid man, with his great, dirty, labouring hands, and the slating-nails dropping from his jacket-pocket and tinkling on the pavement, is borne through the gate to have his shattered bones set and be brought to life again, if the ripest skill in the kingdom can accomplish the doubtful business.'