Great Ormond Street Hospital

Great Ormond Street Hospital stands in the London Borough of Camden, between Great Ormond Street and Guilford Street, close to the boundary with Bloomsbury. Founded in 1852 by Dr Charles West, it was England’s first hospital with beds solely for children. Queen Victoria became its patron, and Charles Dickens helped raise funds in its early years. The Nurses League was formed in 1937 to support staff and patients. Today it remains one of the world’s leading children’s hospitals. The hospital leads Britain in child heart surgery and heart transplants worldwide. In 1962 it built the first heart and lung bypass machine for children. With Roald Dahl it developed a better shunt valve for hydrocephalus and non-invasive heart valve replacements. It ran the first UK trials of the rubella vaccine and performed the first bone marrow transplant and gene therapy for severe combined immunodeficiency. Research and postgraduate teaching in children’s health are the largest in Europe. St Christopher’s Chapel sits inside the Variety Club Building, designed by Edward Middleton Barry in 1875 in elaborate Franco-Italianate style. The chapel’s stained glass shows scenes from Christ’s childhood and a pelican feeding its young, a symbol of sacrifice. In the late 1980s the chapel was moved on a concrete raft to save it during demolition. Diana, Princess of Wales reopened it in 1994. The hospital also holds the rights to Peter Pan, donated by J. M. Barrie in 1929, which continues to fund its work through royalties.