1808 – Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital, Grand Canal Street, Dublin

The physician Sir Patrick Dun had died in 1713, leaving lands in county Waterford in trust to the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. The College was to use the income to pay for a Professor of Physic in Dublin. By 1800 the estates were producing far more income that Dun had anticipated, and the School of Physic Act provided for the establishment of a further three professors and a hospital where they could give clinical lectures. Construction of the granite-faced building started in 1803, and it opened for patients in 1808. The building, designed by Sir Richard Morrison is an austere classical composition, finished in granite, with a symmetrical composition. The central doorway is emphasised by the flanking round-headed windows and columns above. As well as providing clinical instruction for medical students Dun’s Hospital also taught midwifery and trained army nurses. The hospital closed in the 1980s as part of the redistribution of medical services in Dublin, and the services transferred to St. James’s Hospital.

Described by Lewis in his ‘A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland’ as “Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital, in Canal-street, was founded for the relief of the sick, maimed, or wounded, and as an appendage to the School of Physic for extending the sphere of medical practice, by a fund arising from the produce of estates bequeathed by the founder to the College of Physicians. The institution is under the direction of a board of governors. The medical department consists of two physicians in ordinary, one extraordinary, a surgeon, and an apothecary; and the house department, of a treasurer, registrar, providore, and matron. Lectures are delivered twice every week, during the medical season, by the professors of the school of physic in rotation in the theatre, and clinical lectures are also given at the bedside of the patient. The building, which is capable of receiving 100 patients, was commenced in 1803, and completed at an expense of £40,000, of which sum, £9000 was granted by parliament, and the remainder was defrayed from the proceeds of the estates, and by subscription. The building consists of a centre and two projecting wings: the ground floor of the centre contains apartments for the matron and apothecary, the pupils’ waiting-room, and the theatre; and in the upper story are the board-room of the College of Physicians, the library, and the museum; the wings contain the wards for the patients. Patients who are not objects of charity are admitted on paying £1. 10. per month during their continuance in the hospital; the average annual income is upwards of £3000.”