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bharchives.bsky.social
Barts Health Archives
@bharchives.bsky.social
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Explore nearly 900 years of history through the archives and objects cared for by Barts Health NHS Trust Archives. Part of Barts Health NHS Trust. Find out more at www.bartshealth.nhs.uk/barts-health-archives
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It was wonderful to hear so many stories from the St Bartholomew's Hospital archives woven together beautifully by Nadia Valman, alongside images of documents and photos from our collections projected onto @bartsnorthwing.bsky.social as part of @beinghumanfest.bsky.social on Monday night😍
A image of the indenture agreement between the governors of St Bartholomew's Hospital and Tobias Preist for carpenter's work for the West Wing, 1748/1749 [SBHB/HA/19/14], projected onto the facade and windows of Barts North Wing A image of the petition of Frances Turner of St Mary Islington for admission to St Bartholomew's Hospital, signed by B Wood, governor, 1828 [SBHB/MR/6/4], projected onto a pillar in the archway of Barts North Wing An image of the profile portrait photograph of Ethel Bedford Fenwick, nee Gordon Manson, former Matron at St Bartholomew's Hospital and a key figure in the campaign for nursing registration, taken 1920s [SBHPP/MAN/28], projected onto the facade of Barts North Wing An image of a black and white photograph of the 1947 View Day procession passing the North Wing of St Bartholomew's Hospital, showing the beadle in ceremonial robe with his staff of office at the front and Matron Helen Dey in uniform behind [SBHB/MP/2/54], projected onto Barts North Wing
November 12, 2025 at 11:17 AM
bharchives.bsky.social
It's #WorldDigitalPreservationDay, and we're asking #WhyPreserve ? Our hospitals have been creating digital records in various forms for over 60 years, but as technology evolves, information and records can become inaccessible. Digital preservation is essential for future access #WDPD2025
Photograph of two staff members at the London Hospital seated at IBM microcomputers in front of them, processing hospital expenditure accounts, c1970s [RLHLH/P/2/22/8]
November 6, 2025 at 3:45 PM
bharchives.bsky.social
It's that time again! The September newsletter is now out👀 - check your inbox if you're on our mailing list (and if you're not, sign up via our website!)
You can also read it in the 'Newsletters and blogs' section of the website www.bartshealth.nhs.uk/barts-health-archives
Jpg image of page 2 of the newsletter - read it in full via our website or by joining our mailing list
October 3, 2025 at 6:46 PM
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In 1912 baby elephant, Jumbo, visited the London Hospital to have his heart beats registered.

Jumbo was one of a pair of elephants owned by the Daily Mirror. They were used for to fundraise for hospitals and charities before being donated to ZSL.

#WorldElephantDay #ElephantDay #Jumbo
RLHLH/P/2/19/01 - A black and white photo showing baby elephant standing in metal baths in front of hospital staff. Inscribed on the front: "No. 8 Baby Jumbo. The Daily Mirror Elephant having his heart beats registered at the London Hospital."
August 12, 2025 at 8:57 AM
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A cat in the catering department! Or should that be CAT-ring department?

This photo, from 1922, shows members of the St Bartholomew’s Hospital catering staff 🐈

#InternationalCatDay #Archives
SBHX8/1788 - Thirteen members of the catering staff at St Bartholomew's Hospital, 1922. The eleven women and two men are pictured in four rows. The women are wearing white aprons, collars and caps, and one is holding a black cat. One woman has been marked with the letter M or by an X.
August 8, 2025 at 8:25 AM
bharchives.bsky.social
Yesterday we hosted an away day for the dietetics team from the Royal London Hospital, kicking off with a display on the rich history of food, diet and dietitians at the London. If you work for the Trust and like the sound of an Archives away day, get in touch!
The group stand at a table in the archives searchroom looking at a display of documents Dietitians looking at documents A diet table annotated by a nursing student from the London Hospital Training School for nurses, c1920s
July 25, 2025 at 3:53 PM
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Our "coolest spoon" - a lithotomy scoop, used during surgeries to remove bladder stones. The surgeon would use tools to break up the stone in the bladder and then use a spoon, like this, and forceps to remove the shards.

This example, RLHINV/279, dates from about 1880 🥄
Long handled metal spoon photographed against a white background, there is a ruler at the bottom of the photo. There is a smooth handle at one end and at the other end is a scoop with indentation to help grip the stone for removal.
July 15, 2025 at 1:09 PM
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A different type of nurses cap today - swimming caps! These pictures from the 1950s show the London Hospital nurses enjoying some leisure time in hospital pool 🌊

#HistNursing #LondonHistory
RLHLH/P/2/15/09 - Black and white photograph, circa 1950, showing two people in swimming costumes and caps sitting by the side of an indoor swimming pool. Behind them there are some people entering the pool via the steps, and people waiting to jump off a diving board. RLHLH/P/2/15/01 - Black and white photo, circa 1950. showing people wearing swimming costumes and caps sitting around the edge of an indoor swimming pool, four people are standing on blocks waiting to dive in.
July 11, 2025 at 10:04 AM
bharchives.bsky.social
First outing for our new BHA banner at the @qmul.bsky.social Founders Day event!
A pull-up banner with text and photos explaining the services provided by the barts health archives A table with papers and activities on a parquet floor. There are two banners and a mannequin nun either side of the table A view up at a vaulted ceiling and library shelves in a victorian looking building. There are rows of chairs pointed towards a large screen with a blue background that reads Welcome to Founders Day 2025
July 9, 2025 at 6:07 PM
bharchives.bsky.social
No holiday booked this year? No problem! The RELAXATOR will give you that relaxed feeling - banishing mental tension and restoring your physical energy!

This advert was in the St Bartholomew's Hospital Journal, 1968.
Black and white advert printed on green/blue coloured paper. It reads "10 minutes holiday a day. The relaxator - the wonderful unique design of the Seat of the Century is the perfect answer to induce quick, complete relaxation, banish mental tension, restore physical energy. Unwind from the stress of modern living. To relax properly the head needs to be lower than your feet, the body is suspended in a special curve. This is just one relaxing position you can get with this life-long investment for leisure. Elegant, light and portable." Taken from the St Bartholomew's Hospital Journal, 1968
July 9, 2025 at 9:49 AM
bharchives.bsky.social
#CowAppreciationDay you say? We have several cow horns in our collection. These examples date from around 1700 and were used to feed children and patients that were too poorly to consume solid food 🐮
SBHX4/551 - A colour photo showing two dark brown, nearly black, horns against a white fabric background. The horns have been smoothed and have a wax nozzle at one end to assist with feeding. At the bottom of the picture is a size and colour gauge to help photograph museum objects.
July 8, 2025 at 10:46 AM
bharchives.bsky.social
Weekend reading sorted! 📖👀
Out today, the new issue of our newsletter - read it at the 'Newsletters and Blogs' section of our website, www.bartshealth.nhs.uk/barts-health.... Check your inbox if you're already on our mailing list, or go to the website to sign up and receive future issues!
Image of part of the front page of Archives newsletter issue 9, with part of an article entitled 'Written on the Walls: the Whipps Cross Hospital graffiti recording project'. The full text can be read by downloading the newsletter from our website
July 4, 2025 at 3:58 PM
bharchives.bsky.social
In the early 20th century, most early dietitians were trained nurses, but the 1970s, it had become a profession in itself. From 1971, the London Hospital trained students in Nutrition and Dietetics. Today, a degree accredited by the British Dietetic Association is required #DW2025 (3/3)
Black and white photograph of a dietician and student preparing a meal in the metabolic unit kitchen at the London Hospital (RLHLH/P/2/24/1)
June 6, 2025 at 9:48 AM
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Another pioneering dietitian, Rose Murlis Simmonds, who worked at The London Hospital (now the Royal London), published her Handbook of Diets in 1931. But the role of diet in patient care had been understood for many centuries; the hospital published patient diet sheets from c1760s #DW2025 (2/)
Image of Printed diet sheet of The London Hospital, 1762 (RLHINV/157). Divided into full, middle or low, milk, dry and fever diets to be given to hospital patients.Full diet was given to men, middle diet to women and children. All (except special diets) were given bread and beer, but no vegetables. Jewish patients were given money to buy Kosher food. Annotations in ink on reverse apparently relating to the use of the menu on each day of the week
June 6, 2025 at 9:48 AM
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It's #DietitiansWeek #DW2025, so we're looking back at the development of dietetics at our hospitals. Margery Abrahams, dietitian at St Bartholomew's Hospital & first chair of the British Dietetic Association, was an early pioneer. Her book Modern Dietary Treatment was published in 1937 (🧵 1/)
Black and white photograph showing Margery Abrahams and assistants in white dresses, aprons and caps working in the Diet Kitchen at St Bartholomew's Hospital, c1930s. Abrahams is pictured between two unnamed assistants, one of whom is making pastry, the other weighing milk.
June 6, 2025 at 9:48 AM
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Inspired by some of the marginalia in our 15th century Cok's Cartulary, we designed some stickers for visitors at View Day.

Which character are you - the grumpy bunny? A two faced dog/king? A basilisk? A hungry fox? A merry piper?
A collection of five colourful circles containing illustrations. Top left - an illustration of a rabbit holding a sprig of something, on a pink background. Top right - a surreal image of two dogs hugging surrounded by faces, against a red background. Middle - an illustration in orange of a winged snake, against a yellow background. Bottom left - an illustration in dark blue of a medieval character playing a horn and standing on one leg, against a light blue background. Bottom right - an illustration in red, of a fox holding a goose, against a green background. What are these drawings? These doodles and drawings were made along the edges of pages in the St Bartholomew’s Hospital Cartulary. They are called marginalia. There are drawings of pets, mythical creatures, musicians, faces, and fancy lettering. Sometimes they are pictures about the text, sometimes they highlight important bits in the text, and sometimes they are random. What is a cartulary? A cartulary is a collection of important documents kept together to help run a medieval organisation. Sometimes these documents have been bound together into a book. The word cartulary comes from the Latin word ‘chartula’ which means ‘little paper’. Some cartularies are decorated with colourful illustrations and gold. Why does St Bartholomew’s Hospital have a cartulary? The cartulary was started by Brother John Cok in about 1418 but has copies of documents from as early as 1133. St Bartholomew’s Hospital made money by owning lands and charging rents, and the cartulary was used as a way of keeping track of all the documents needed to manage the hospital’s business. Sheets of stickers sitting on a white table cloth. An extract from a page of Cok's Cartulary showing medieval handwriting and some of the illustrations (the fox holding the goose).
May 14, 2025 at 2:28 PM
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View Day is here again! Visit our stall in the square at St Bartholomew's Hospital and find out how a day to survey the hospital properties evolved into a viewing of the patients and now an annual celebration of the hospital's work. Ice cream and historic pill making - it's all happening!
Archivist Ginny stands at a stall with books for sale and handling objects, and a display on the history of View Day Using a pill-making machine from our handling collection to make play doh pills! An ice cream cone at the stall
May 14, 2025 at 11:04 AM
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The building is the North Wing, and behind the windows is the ground floor lobby of the grand staircase, with its huge paintings by William Hogarth. We know that the governors proposed temporary removal of the Charter Window on the first floor, and discussed precautions for the other windows
A photograph of the North Wing at St Bartholomew's Hospital, taken more recently but illustrating a similar view. The building is currently being restored by Barts Heritage, and will reopen in the autumn.
May 12, 2025 at 2:42 PM
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Cheers to nurses the world over, and the incredible work they do! #InternationalNursesDay #IND2025
Black and white photograph of three student nurses in uniform seated at bar tables by a window in the Three Feathers Club or Nurses Recreation Centre on the London Hospital site, c1970s [RLHLH/P/2/16/06] They are all eating from plates of pie and mash, and each has a partially-drunk half pint of beer in a tankard in front of them. The name badges worn by the nurse identify them as Miss E Chapman, Miss E Jones and Miss ? Jones.
May 12, 2025 at 1:51 PM
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As the world has looked back on VE day this week, we have had a question about St Bartholomew's Hospital in the Second World War, which we can't answer. Can you help?!
This photo was taken in the hospital square in the 1940s; what was the purpose of the temporary wooden structures in the background?
A black and white photograph showing two women in outdoor coats and hats (Lisette Phillips, secretary at St Bartholomew's Hospital and her friend Venetia) standing by the fountain in the hospital square. In the background are hospital buildings - in front of one building is a row of wooden structures shaped like square based pyramids with the top chopped off. Slits are visible at the top of the slatted walls of the structures (SBHPP/ETP/1)
May 9, 2025 at 7:40 AM
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We're very pleased to share five new research guides, researched by @qmul.ac.uk students as part of the #qHeritage knowledge exchange programme!
The guides cover schools of nursing, physiotherapy and radiotherapy, & historic admission processes at the London Hospital.
Find them at shorturl.at/j6jNJ
Colour photograph of the students on the qHeritage programme, who worked with us to research the guides, at the pitch day for their projects in the archives, April 2025
May 2, 2025 at 3:45 PM
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At the London Hospital, nurses and sisters wore blue outdoor coats, except for midwives and private staff, who wore green). During the blitz, the district midwifery team, or 'green nurses' added tin helmets and gasmasks on their rounds #ArchiveTravel #HistNursing #Archives
RLHLH/P/2/37/94 - Black and white photograph of Alma Dear, district midwife, leaving headquarters, with a uniformed nurse standing behind her in a doorway. Dear is wearing the high-necked double-breasted coat of the district midwive's uniform (an olive green in colour) with a protective tin helmet, and holding a case, with a gas-mask bag worn across her body.
April 23, 2025 at 10:34 AM
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For much of the 20th century, nurses travelling hospital precincts wore an 'outdoor uniform' to protect them from the elements and protect their indoor uniform underneath from muddy streets and city dirt, while identifying them as employees of their hospital

#ArchiveTravel #HistNursing #Archives
RLHLH/P/2/51/4 - Black and white slide image of two female nurses standing outside a hospital building. The nurse on the left is earing the overcoat and felt brimmed hat of the new London Hospital outdoor uniform, designed by Norman Hartnell, the nurse on the right the caped coat and bonnet-style hat of the old design. The nurse in the new uniform is holding out one of the caped sleeves of the other woman with a gloved hand.
April 23, 2025 at 10:34 AM
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Today's #Archive30 is #SomethingSmall. This is a little charm bracelet given to nurse Joy Biggs in the early 1930s to bring her luck in her nursing exams

#HistNursing #Archives [SBHPP/BIG/1]
A small white envelope with handwriting on it rests on a white background. Below the envelope is a black string affixed to which are a number of small charms - two small horseshoes, a wooden white cat, a metal lion, a black plastic or bakelite cat, a purple plastic deer or stag, a metal rabbit, a pearly white pig, a black imp or devil, a red glass fish, and a clear plastic elephant. A small white envelope with handwriting on it rests on a white background. Below the envelope is a black string affixed to which are a number of small charms - two small horseshoes, a wooden white cat, a metal lion, a black plastic or bakelite cat, a purple plastic deer or stag, a metal rabbit, a pearly white pig, a black imp or devil, a red glass fish, and a clear plastic elephant. A small white envelope with handwriting on it rests on a white background. Below the envelope is a black string affixed to which are a number of small charms - two small horseshoes, a wooden white cat, a metal lion, a black plastic or bakelite cat, a purple plastic deer or stag, a metal rabbit, a pearly white pig, a black imp or devil, a red glass fish, and a clear plastic elephant.
April 16, 2025 at 9:18 AM
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This notebook from the 1940s contains diet lists, recipes, and notes on patient nutrition, compiled by Sister Rachel Mason, who trained and nursed at the London Hospital.

It includes early examples of celiac and FODMAP diets, known at the time as Sprue and Lenhart.

#ArchiveFoodAndDrink #Archives
Notebook opened to two pages of lined paper with handwritten instructions for preparing a Sprue Diet. Includes what meals to prepare and when, and recommendations for foods such as liver soup, a raw meat sandwich, a list of permitted fruits and foods to avoid. Notebook opened to two pages of lined paper with handwritten instructions for preparing Lenhart Diet including what can be eaten and what should be avoided.
April 15, 2025 at 8:47 AM