St. Mark's Hospital

St Mark’s Hospital stands in Harrow-on-the-Hill as one of the world’s few centres entirely devoted to intestinal and colorectal medicine. It forms part of Northwick Park Hospital, a large NHS site on the northern edge of London. The building sits among modern hospital wards and research blocks, yet its history reaches back nearly two centuries. A specialist unit, it receives patients and referrals from across the country and beyond. Imperial College London works closely with the hospital, training doctors and running research programmes. The hospital’s reputation rests on its unique focus and long record of innovation in bowel care. The hospital began in 1835 when Frederick Salmon opened a small infirmary in Aldersgate Street for people with fistulas and rectal diseases. Within a year it admitted 131 patients on seven beds. Salmon, a surgeon trained at St Bartholomew’s, had resigned from a dispensary after a dispute and decided to create his own institution. Support came from the City of London, including the Lord Mayor William Taylor Copeland and the writer Charles Dickens. By 1838 the hospital moved to Charterhouse Square with fourteen beds and an outpatient department. In 1854 it became St Mark’s Hospital for Fistula and other Diseases of the Rectum after relocating to City Road. Today the Harrow unit is one of three hubs run by St Mark’s. Visitors find modern wards and outpatient consulting rooms alongside seminar rooms used by Imperial College. A portrait of Frederick Salmon hangs outside the ward named in his honour. The hospital keeps a registry of polyposis cases and supports research led by gastroenterologists such as Francis Avery-Jones. A charity fund set up in the 1940s still helps patients with costs. The site shares facilities with Northwick Park Hospital, yet retains its identity as a specialist centre for bowel medicine.