Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh

The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh stands in the southern part of the city on a site called Little France. It is a large modern hospital surrounded by low hills and parkland. The hospital opened in 2003 on a 900-bed site after earlier moves in the 19th and 20th centuries. It belongs to the University of Edinburgh Medical School and trains doctors and nurses. The first successful kidney transplant in the UK took place here in 1960. The hospital also set up the world’s first coronary care unit in 1964. The infirmary has long been a centre of medical innovation. It became the largest voluntary hospital in the United Kingdom after moving to Infirmary Street in 1879. The hospital once owned a Jamaican plantation called Red Hill Pen, which provided funds for medicines and new buildings. In 2023 the health board announced reparations for slavery linked to that ownership. The old Infirmary Street buildings were demolished in 1884 and replaced by public baths and a school. Visitors today find a busy teaching hospital set among green spaces. The main entrance leads into a modern complex of wards and departments. A plaque marks the site of the first small hospital from 1729 near South Bridge. Nearby, an old surgical theatre from 1741 now forms part of a private house called Drummond Scrolls. The ornamental gates from the 19th-century hospital stand at the entrance to the surviving Drummond Street building.