The Great Hospital

When

Key dates in the history of The Great Hospital:

• 1249 The Great Hospital was established. The original parish church of St Helen, across the road, was demolished in the 1270s and a nave for the use of parishioners was inserted between the hospital infirmary and chapel
• 1383 Anne of Bohemia (King Richard II's queen) visited Norwich. Painted in her honour, the eagles on the chancel ceiling are the coat of arms of her father, the Holy Roman Emperor
• 1460 The cloisters were completed
• 1539 The Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII forced the closure of the Great Hospital. It was later re-founded and granted to the city by Edward VI
• 16^th century St Helen's church was restructured - the east end and the adjacent infirmary were partitioned off from one and other, creating 2 wards
• 1889 A ‘sick ward' was established to provide better nursing care
• 1979 The Eagle Ward closed. Today it is preserved as though still occupied, with the cubicles of the female inhabitants as they were in the 1950s