St Leonard's Hospital

St Leonard's Hospital. . You are standing in an entrance passageway to St Leonard's hospital, one of the oldest and largest hospitals in medieval England., Beyond you can see the chapel and, around to the side, the undercroft. Its other buildings reached to what is now the Theatre Royal. Although this passageway is dark, the rooms above were lit with large windows., Medieval hospitals did not aim to cure disease in the way that hospitals do today. This often meant looking after the spiritual as well as the physical wellbeing. They tended the poor, infirm and elderly and gave them a bed, warm fire and nourishing food. The brothers and sisters also distributed alms at this gate to paupers every day. As a religious building the hospital was disbanded in 1540, during the dissolution of the monasteries., The building has subsequently been used as farm buildings, a boatyard, stables and even an air raid shelter., "Proclaim the good news...cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons." - Matthew 10:7-8