Child's cot at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children
Founded in 1852, the UK's first hospital for sick children
This illustration of a child's hospital cot as used in Great
Ormond Street Hospital is from the 'Handy Book of Cottage
Hospitals' by Horace Swete. Great Ormond Street, which runs
eastward from Queen Square into Lamb's Conduit Street, was built at
the start of the 1700s. Described in 1708 as 'a street of fine new
buildings', the large redbrick houses soon became seen as 'one of
the finest situations about town.' The street has been home to
organisations such as the Working Men's College, the Hospital of St
John and St Elizabeth, the Provident Surgical Appliance Society,
the Home for Friendless Girls and the Homoeopathic Hospital. But it
is best known for its Hospital for Sick Children - the UK's first
hospital dedicated to children - which was founded in 1852 in the
mansion at number 49 with space for 10 beds.