London School of Medicine for Women

The London School of Medicine for Women opened in 1874 as Britain’s first medical school for women. It stands in central London, close to the Royal Free Hospital, which from 1877 allowed its students to complete clinical training there. The school was founded by Sophia Jex-Blake, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Emily Blackwell and Elizabeth Blackwell with support from Thomas Henry Huxley. Its early patrons wanted educated women to gain qualifications in midwifery and other branches of medicine. By 1896 the school had become the London Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine for Women and was part of the University of London. The school’s history shows how women fought for medical education. In 1876 the Medical Act removed gender restrictions on licensing doctors. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson served as dean from 1883 to 1903 while the school expanded and rebuilt. By 1914 more than 300 women studied there, making it the largest women’s medical college in Britain. Rukhmabai, a well known Indian feminist, qualified in 1894 and helped inspire a hostel for Indian women students by 1920. Visitors find a modest building that once housed lecture rooms and laboratories. A plaque marks the site where the school trained its first doctors. Portraits of founders such as Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Elizabeth Blackwell hang in the entrance hall. The Royal Free Hospital next door still keeps records of the women who trained there. The quiet street outside contrasts with the ambition that once filled these rooms.