History

It was always intended that UCL would have a medical school; medical lessons were included in the first syllabus, taught from October 1828 (W. R. Merrington, University College Hospital and its Medical School: A History, 1976)

The foundation of UCH came about because it was considered necessary to give medical students clinical practice; the Hospital thus became the first hospital in London to be founded as part of a university

Before the dispensary which was the forerunner to UCH was established, medical students at the University obtained their clinical experience at the nearby Middlesex Hospital, and some staff favoured a union with this hospital instead, but it was opposed by influential UCL Council member George Birkbeck (W. R. Merrington, University College Hospital and its Medical School: A History, 1976)

It was a successful adjunct of the University from the start; by May 1833 “the anticipated building of a hospital had increased the number of medical students at the University from 248 in 1831 to 353 in 1833” (W. R. Merrington, University College Hospital and its Medical School: A History, 1976)

By the later nineteenth century it had acquired a reputation for excellence and was still expanding; in 1871 amalgamation with other medical schools such as the Middlesex or the Royal Free was considered, to accommodate the increasing number of students (W. R. Merrington, University College Hospital and its Medical School: A History, 1976)

The University of London Act 1898 reconstituted the University of London and made UCL into a School of the University; the 1905 UCL (Transfer) Act was a further reorganisation, under which essentially the Medical School, Boys’ School, and UCH itself all had to be separated from UCL, which was achieved in 1907 (W. R. Merrington, University College Hospital and its Medical School: A History, 1976)

What was then needed was to pay off UCL’s debt and purchase a site for the new separate Medical School; part of University Street had already been bought for the latter, and the rest of the site between Gower Street and Huntley Street was bought for £50,000 (W. R. Merrington, University College Hospital and its Medical School: A History, 1976)

Another £80,000 for the School of Advanced Medical Studies at UCL was given by Sir Donald Currie, who also gave £22,500 for the Nurses’ Home (W. R. Merrington, University College Hospital and its Medical School: A History, 1976)

After reorganisation caused by the foundation of the National Health Service in 1948, which rendered the Medical School independent, it reunified with UCL in 1980, merged with the Middlesex Hospital medical school to form the University College and Middlesex School of Medicine in 1987, and with the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine to form the Royal Free and University College Medical School in 1998

In 2008 it became the UCL Medical School

It remains one of the largest and best-rated medical schools in the country