St Bartholomew the Less is the church inside St Bartholomew's Hospital, just through the Henry VIII gatehouse on West Smithfield. It is free, open every day from 8am into the evening, and behind its fifteenth-century tower is an octagonal interior of the 1820s. It is used all day by patients, families and hospital staff, so visit it as a quiet place of prayer, not a sight.
Most people who come to Smithfield head for the much larger St Bartholomew the Great, about a hundred metres away, and walk straight past the hospital gate. That is a pity, because the Less is open far longer hours than the Great, it is rarely shut for weddings or filming, and it has an interior unlike any other church in the City. The two now belong to one parish. Our page on Smithfield Market and the new London Museum covers the rest of this corner.
St Bartholomew the Less at a glance
- Where
- Inside St Bartholomew's Hospital, through the Henry VIII Gate on West Smithfield, London EC1A 7BE
- Opening
- Every day from 8am. The parish's visiting page says until 10pm; its page about the church says until 9pm (both read November 2026). Plan on 9pm
- Cost
- Free; donations welcome
- Services
- Sunday family service 10am; Hospital Eucharist Tuesday 12.30pm; an ecumenical Roman Catholic service on Thursdays
- Step-free
- Entrance at the back of the church, opposite the Maggie's centre
- Nearest stations
- Barbican or Farringdon, about 4 minutes' walk; St Paul's, about 6
- Barts North Wing (Hogarth paintings)
- Monday and Tuesday, and the first Sunday of the month, 10am to 4pm. Free (November 2026)
- London Museum, West Smithfield
- Opening 28 November 2026 (checked November 2026)
A church whose parish was a hospital
The hospital and the church are as old as each other. Both were founded in 1123 by Rahere, a courtier who later became a monk, alongside the priory whose church survives as the Great. The parish says the chapel first stood beside the priory and moved to its present site in 1184. Henry VIII dissolved the priory and re-founded the hospital in 1547. For centuries afterwards the Less was a parish church in its own right, and its parish was the hospital.
In 2012 St Bartholomew the Less was united with St Bartholomew the Great, and the parish now describes it as a chapel of ease, meaning a church within the parish that serves people who cannot easily reach the main one. Its own fundraising page still calls it "Britain's only church with a hospital as its parish", which is the history rather than the current legal position. In practice nothing has changed for the people who use it: it is the hospital's church.
The parish says that on an average day nearly a hundred people come in, to light a candle, sit in silence or wait for news. Staff who work or have worked at Barts come back for services. That is the reason for the quiet, and the reason a visitor should keep their voice down and their phone away.
An octagon inside medieval walls
From the hospital square, what you see first is the tower, which dates from the fifteenth century, with some late medieval brick walling in the vestry behind it. The parish says the bells still hang in their medieval frame, and it describes them as the oldest in the City.
Step inside and the medieval church is gone. In 1789 to 1791 George Dance built an octagonal nave in timber inside the old walls, fitting the piers into the roughly square space left by the medieval nave and aisles. It decayed, and in 1823 to 1825 Thomas Hardwick, then the hospital's surveyor, rebuilt it in brick, stone and cast iron, closely following Dance's design. The list entry notes that octagonal Anglican churches are very rare.
The Gothic look of the interior is mostly Victorian. In 1862 to 1863 Philip Hardwick, Thomas's son, added the five-sided chancel and the window tracery, and the floor tiles, pews and altar rail are from the same restoration. Look up for the star-shaped vault with its heavy bosses, and for the chandeliers hanging from the centre. One oddity has never been fully explained: the floor of the main church is about two and a half feet above the ground outside, which may mean there are vaults beneath it.
Look for the nurses' window. The stained glass by Hugh Easton dates from the repairs of 1950, after the church was damaged in the Second World War. One window is a memorial to the nurses of Barts who died caring for the wounded and sick during that war, and for many hospital families it is the reason they come in.
The church also has a good collection of monuments and brasses from the fifteenth century onwards. The oldest named in the list entry is a brass in the vestry to William Markeby, who died in 1439, and his wife. Historic England lists the church at Grade II*.
Finding the door through the Henry VIII Gate
The way in is the gatehouse on the south side of West Smithfield, opposite the rotunda garden in the middle of the market square. The gate was built in 1702 as a new entrance to the hospital, and the statue of Henry VIII in its niche is, according to the hospital's heritage charity, the only public statue of the king in London. The gatehouse itself is not open.
The church stands just inside the gate, in the hospital grounds. Beyond it is the hospital square, with a fountain of 1859 by Philip Hardwick and Victorian shelters, a calm place to sit. The step-free entrance is round the back of the church, opposite the Maggie's cancer support centre.
This is a working hospital, so ambulances have priority. The gate is a vehicle entrance as well as a footpath. Keep to the side, do not stop in the arch to take photographs, and step aside for anyone in a hurry. Inside the church, do not photograph other people: some of them are patients, and some are there on the worst day of their lives.
Combining it with the Hogarth paintings in the North Wing
Across the square is the hospital's eighteenth-century North Wing. Its Great Hall and the Hogarth Stair, named after the paintings by William Hogarth there, have been conserved and repaired, and they are open to the public free, together with St Bartholomew's Hospital Museum. The opening days are short: Mondays, Tuesdays and the first Sunday of each month, 10am to 4pm (November 2026). No booking is needed for individuals.
If you can come on a Monday or Tuesday, that gives you the full set in an hour and a half: the Less, the North Wing and the museum, then the Great across the road, which opens Monday to Saturday from 10am. On any other day the Less will still be open when everything else is closed, and that is its great practical advantage.
Smithfield in a new season
This corner of the City is about to become much busier. The London Museum is moving into the old General Market buildings across West Smithfield, and the opening date is in the box above. Our page on the London Museum covers what will be inside.
That makes the hours of the Less more useful, not less. When the market square is crowded, the church inside the gate will be one of the few quiet indoor places within a few hundred metres. It will also matter more that visitors remember where they are. The church belongs first to people who are ill, and to the people looking after them.
What else is close
The walk north takes you into Clerkenwell and to the Charterhouse, which also began as a medieval religious house. To the east is the Barbican, and to the south, along King Edward Street, is Postman's Park with its wall of tiles remembering ordinary people who died saving others. St Paul's Cathedral is about six minutes' walk away.
For more of the City's small churches, our guide to All Hallows and the City churches has a walking route, and our page on staying in the City of London explains why the area is so quiet at weekends. In east London, the East London Mosque is another place of worship where visitors are welcome if they work round the people it serves.
Frequently asked questions
Is St Bartholomew the Less open to the public?
Yes. It is open every day from 8am, free of charge. The parish gives the closing time as 10pm on its visiting page and 9pm on its page about the church, so treat 9pm as the safe time. It is used by patients, families and staff, so visitors are asked to keep it quiet.
What is the difference between St Bartholomew the Great and St Bartholomew the Less?
The Great is the surviving part of the medieval priory church, a large Norman building outside the hospital. The Less is the hospital's own church, much smaller, inside the Henry VIII Gate. Since 2012 they have been one parish. Both are free.
Why is St Bartholomew the Less octagonal?
In 1789 to 1791 George Dance fitted an octagonal nave inside the walls of the medieval church, which made good use of the roughly square space. Thomas Hardwick rebuilt it in stone and iron in 1823 to 1825, keeping Dance's plan. The fifteenth-century tower was kept throughout.
Can you visit St Bartholomew's Hospital?
The church, the hospital square and the Great Hall in the North Wing are open to the public. The Great Hall, the Hogarth Stair and the hospital museum open on Mondays, Tuesdays and the first Sunday of the month, 10am to 4pm, free (November 2026). The rest of the hospital is for patients and staff.
Sources
- Great St Bartholomew - Visit: opening times, free admission and access (checked November 2026)
- Great St Bartholomew - Repairing the Less: history and appeal (checked November 2026)
- Great St Bartholomew - The parish: St Bartholomew the Great and the Less (checked November 2026)
- Historic England - Church of St Bartholomew the Less, list entry 1180946 (checked November 2026)
- Barts Heritage - Visit Barts North Wing: the Great Hall and Hogarth Stair (checked November 2026)
- London Museum - Opening at West Smithfield (checked November 2026)