The Spaces of the Hospital : Spatiality and Urban Change in London 1680-1820

Shaping London, Shaping Lives explores the role and significance of hospitals as agents of change in London c1700-1840.

Eight hospitals (Bethlehem, Chelsea, Christ's, Foundling, Greenwich, Royal London, St Bartholomew's and St George's) are used as case studies to investigate the interaction between the institution and its urban environment in terms of demographic trends, urban development and planning and the influence of the architects and surveyors to these institutions in the architectural design.

The book highlights how hospitals helped shape London in terms of metropolitan infrastructure and the built fabric.

The author does not set out to construct a linear, progressive history of each of these hospitals but chooses to explore the diversity and difference between them and how they fit into broader paradigms of social, political and cultural life in the capital during the period.