However, none was located to the east of the City, where it could have served the comparatively impoverished and rapidly growing population of Spitalfields and Whitechapel; this was the void that The London Hospital was to fill.

The staff consisted of one surgeon, physician and apothecary; and was operated as a voluntary hospital, in which patients were not charged for treatment and their care was funded charitably from annual subscription fees.

[5] In May 1741, the hospital moved to larger premises in Prescot Street, at that time in an exceedingly bad district.

[6] The purpose-built hospital, which was designed by Boulton Mainwaring[6] and accommodated 300 beds was opened to staff and patients in September 1757.

[7] In the 1870s the medical staff determined to improve the quality of nursing care and in 1880 Eva Luckes was employed as Matron of the Hospital, a post which she held for nearly forty years.

[8] In the late 1890s, Edith Cavell, who later helped some 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium during the First World War, trained under Luckes and worked as a nurse at the hospital.

[13] In 1990 Queen Elizabeth II visited the hospital and added "Royal" to the name, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its founding.

[16] The works also involved the creation of a new trauma and emergency care centre and substantial new renal and paediatric facilities.

[17] These works, which were designed by HOK[18] and undertaken by Skanska at a cost of £650 million, opened in part in 2012 and were completed in 2016.

[21] In March 2020 it was reported that the 14th and 15th floors of the hospital, which were never fitted out because the trust had been unable to afford to do so, would be opened in order to provide more capacity to deal with patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

[24] It included works of art, surgical instruments, medical and nursing equipment, uniforms, medals, documents and books.

There was a forensic medicine section which included original material on Jack the Ripper, Dr Crippen and the Christie murders.

Its helicopters are hangared at RAF Northolt, but their daytime base is on the 17th floor of the Royal London Hospital.

[34] The TV series Casualty 1900s is set at The Royal London, and follows the everyday life of the hospital throughout these years.