The first hospital in Hackney
Kingsland Leper Hospital
© Hackney Archives
Lepers and leprosy
In 1280, the first hospital was set up in Hackney to treat leprosy. The Kingsland Leper Hospital was situated to the southwest of the junction of Kingsland Road and Balls Pond Road. Locally it was known as the Lock Hospital, and was one of ten leper hospitals established by the City to London to treat leprosy – a disease that affects the upper respiratory tract, skin, nerves, limbs and eyes. From 1549, the hospital was run as an isolation house for St Bartholomew’s Hospital in Smithfield. The last recorded case of leprosy in London was in 1559. From then on patients were sent to Kingsland with a variety of diseases. Rising costs forced St Bartholomew’s Hospital to close the Kingsland Leper Hospital in 1760, ending a 500 year history of caring for the sick.
This page was added by
Lisa Rigg on 27/03/2010.