New Hospital
From the opening of the new hospital in 1973, the medical school was contained entirely within the hospital tower (in the east wing laboratory block), but in 1976 the medical school's own building (the Reynolds Building) was completed. Housing the CXHMS students’ union (now part of Imperial College School of Medicine Students' Union, it saw the start of many ongoing traditions, (including the annual "Invasion of London", in which garishly-dressed students persuade commuters and other city folk to donate to charity), most of which seem to centre around the medical school bar. The Reynolds bar houses a mysterious elephant/dinosaur skull (provenance unknown), as well as many other items of memorabilia. A large brass Maltese cross was brought from the old (Strand) site to the bar to serve as the students' emblem. The cross was from the top of the dome in the strand building and was rescued in 1973. It spent the next 4 years under the bed of a student and was given to the Medical School in 1978 when the student qualified. Newly Qualified doctors now "Sign the Cross" on graduation, making it a legend in our lifetime! Seeing as the nearby St Mary's Hospital Medical School had a 2ft cast of Paddington Bear in their bar (affectionately known as Gladys'), it became a regular occurrence for teams of students to attempt to capture the rival emblem.
Read more about this topic: Charing Cross Hospital Medical School
Famous quotes containing the word hospital:
“For millions of men and women, the church has been the hospital for the soul, the school for the mind and the safe depository for moral ideas.”
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)
“The sun his hand uncloses like a statue,
Irrevocably: thereby such light is freed
That all the dingy hospital of snow
Dies back to ditches.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)