London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is a world-renown institute for public and global health dealing with dealings in research and education. It has a history of movement around London where it now resides at the Keppel Street Building, where it has gone through various internal renovations and improvements. The building was listed as Grade II which was granted in the 1980s.

The London School of Tropical Medicine was founded by Sir Patrick Manson on the London Docks in 1899, who wanted all the doctors to be trained in tropical diseases. The school and hospital for tropical diseases to Endsleigh Gardens in West London 1920. The Athlone Committee as proposed by the Rockafeller Foundation, came up with the institute of state of medicine that will lead the world to promote public health and tropical medicine.

In 1922, the Rockafeller Foundation funded the school $2m to take up residence in the Keppel Street Building. The building was previously bought out by the National Theatre Committee for £52,000 in 1913 to create a Shakespeare memorial theatre to celebrate the tercentenary of the artist, but did not come to light following the World War in 1914. 

The school came to be known as the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, as it is now known as today, and was granted the Royal Charter in 1924. The foundation stone was laid down by Neville Chamberlain on 7 July 1926 and the building opened on 18 July 1929, by HRH the Prince of Wales. 

The building is built of a steel frame, which is the first in Europe of this type of building, and a Portland stone encased out from front and around the building in a stripped classical style. Another interesting design feature to the building is that it is built in a shape of a capital “A”.

The entrance to the building has the logo of the school which was formed from a coin found from Sicily featuring Pestilence as well as Apollo (god of music and medicine) and Artemis (goddess of hunting and child birth).

Adjourned to the balcony of the windows contain bronze pieces of animals that carry and relate to diseases such as mosquitos, fleas, serpents, ticks and louses.

On the reams found surrounding the building are names of men with pioneering significance to the field of medicine and Florence Nightingale was considered, but her last name was considered too long, even though one of the men’s name was the same length as hers.

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine takes on many different researches and responding to combat diseases. Some of the research include Ebola and Malaria. They also cover a range of other topics outside this spectrum which include study of streetlights in relation to crimes and car incidences to human trafficking. The vaults of the school houses the area for insect breeding to carry out further research on diseases.

The John Snow Lecture Theatre can hold up to 300 people and can be split in the middle with a partitioned wall to create two lecture halls holding 145 people on each side. It was named after the epidemiologist Jon Snow (not after the GOT character – ah ha!), who came down to live in Soho, London in the 19th century. His studies were vital in recognising the cholera outbreak in London. As people collected there water from pipelines dotted around, he investigated if this was the cause of the outbreak. He went from door-to-door around Soho asking sick people of their symptoms and where they got their water from. Putting two and two together and found the source of the outbreak was caused by a water pump in Broad Street (near Broadwick Street). He fought until the pump was removed. “The Pump” can be found along the walkway outside the theatre on loan from the John Snow Society.

Two courtyards were designed so that it brought air and light into surrounding rooms. The North Courtyard was opened in February 2004 by Desmond Tutu. The 7-storey building is built into a glass atrium providing office and research space for over 100 staff. The South Courtyard was opened by HRH The Princess Royal in May 2009. The 5-storey building contains space for lectures, teaching, research and a social space for staff and students. The south utilises energy efficient technologies.

Just above the library entrance is a sculpture created by Eric Kennington with initial reactions was that it was far too rude. It features a man, a woman and a baby, all in nude. It has since had some cracks appear but they were painted over. Inside the library, the architects came to a decision that the furniture should be kept to the design of the original. The floor is made of cork with the walls kept to the original oak.