London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM or the "London School") is a constituent college of the University of London, and a postgraduate institution in Europe for public health and tropical medicine. The London School is an internationally recognized centre of excellence in public health, international health and tropical medicine with a remarkable depth and breadth of expertise.

The School's mission is: To contribute to the improvement of health worldwide through the pursuit of excellence in research, postgraduate teaching and advanced training in national and international public health and tropical medicine, and through informing policy and practice in these areas.

History
The School was founded in 1899 by Sir Patrick Manson as the London School of Tropical Medicine and located at the Albert Dock Seamen's Hospital in the London Docklands. Manson was a physician who worked in the Far East in the 1860s-1880s, where he encountered tropical diseases and was frustrated by his lack of knowledge. On his return to London, among other roles, he was appointed Medical Advisor to the Colonial Office. He believed that doctors should be trained in tropical medicine, to treat the many British citizens who were dying of tropical diseases that could have been treated if colonial doctors knew more about these diseases. The original School was established as part of the Seamen's Hospital Society, it has its origins in the hospital ships which were docked on the Thames at Greenwich.

In 1920 the School moved, with the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, to Endsleigh Gardens in central London, taking over a former hotel which had been used as a hospital for officers during the First World War. In 1921 the Athlone Committee recommended the creation of an institute of state medicine, which built on a proposal by the Rockefeller Foundation to develop a London-based institution that would lead the world in the promotion of public health and tropical medicine. This enlarged School, now named the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine was granted its Royal Charter in 1924.

The main School building is in Keppel Street in Bloomsbury, London. This building was opened in 1929 by HRH the Prince of Wales. The purchase of the site and the cost of a new building was made possible through a generous gift of $2m from the Rockefeller Foundation. A competition to design the new School building was held involving five architects, all experienced in laboratory design and construction. This was won by Morley Horder and Verner Rees.

Notes and References

 * World Health Organization