This, is a noble though a heavy structure; it is situated in Warwick lane,—a lane so named from the inn or house of the great Earls of Warwick, which formerly stood there. It is a fine fabric of brick and stone; but its exterior beauties are lost in so confined a situation. The entrance is through a grand octangular porch, crowned with a dome and a cone, terminated by a golden ball, or, as it has been jocosely denominated, a GILDED PILL. There are statues of Charles II, Sir John Cutler, &c. The staircase, inside the college, is richly, but heavily ornamented. The hall in which the collegiate physicians assemble once a quarter, is very long and is lighted by eleven arched windows. There are sixteen portraits hanging round it, Henry VIII.,Cardinal Wolsey, Drs. William Harvey, Ratcliffe, &c.; but they are in bad situations to be seen.—In the committee-room are 112 folio books saved from the fire of 1666. The library has five shelves of folios; and above the galleries seven rows of quartos and octavos. This college is, in fact, the college of physicians and surgeons; the latter being separated from the Barbers in 1800. No person can legally practise without a license of qualification from this college. Besides the quarterly meetings for the granting of diplomas, &c., there are delivered in the course of the year, the Guestonian Lecture and the Harveyan Oration in Latin. The celebrated Dr. Akenside once delivered the Harveyan Oration.
It was in contemplation to build a New College of Physicians, to form part of and be in unison with the improvements in front of Carlton House, and to resemble Surgeons' hall recently raised in Lincoln's Inn Fields; but the intention, we believe, has been abandoned in consequence of inability to gain the ground on desirable terms.
Related pages:
Medicine and Surgery.
....Introduction
....Royal College of Surgeons
....Gresham College
....Apothecaries' Company
....Medical Society
....Red Cross-street Library
....(Lectures: with names of Lecturers)
Source: Leigh's New Picture of London. Printed for Samuel Leigh, 18, Strand;
by W. Clowes, Northumberland Court. 1819