The Finsbury Dispensary, more fully the Finsbury Dispensary for Administering Advice and Medicines to the Poor, was a

charitable dispensary A public dispensary, charitable dispensary or free dispensary gives advice and medicines free-of-charge, or for a small charge. Provident dispensary In the 19th and early 20th centuries a provident dispensary was a clinic offering medical care ...

giving medical treatment to poor people in

Finsbury Finsbury is a district of Central London, forming the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Islington. It borders the City of London. The Manor of Finsbury is first recorded as ''Vinisbir'' (1231) and means "manor of a man called Finn ...

, on the edge of the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

. It was founded in 1780 by a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

, one George Friend. It operated from various premises during its existence in the 19th century, notably, between 1819 and 1838 it occupied a large, well-appointed house in St. John's Street, where it was sometimes called the New Finsbury Dispensary.Roger M Ridley-Smith
"The Finsbury Dispensary"
, ''New Zealand Medical Journal'', vol.119, no.1233, 5 May 2006
archived
15 April 2016. A number of well-known surgeons and physicians worked at the Finsbury Dispensary. These include; * John Andree (appointed 1781) *

William Charles Wells Dr William Charles Wells FRS FRSE FRCP (24 May 1757 – 18 September 1817) was a Scottish-American physician and printer. He lived a life of extraordinary variety, did some notable medical research, and made the first clear statement about na ...

(appointed 1790) *

Charles Aldis Sir Charles Aldis (16 March 1776 – 28 March 1863) was an English surgeon. His son, Charles James Berridge Aldis, was also a physician. Aldis was born in Aslacton, Norfolk, the seventh son and one of twenty two children of Daniel Aldis, a medi ...

Golding Bird Golding Bird (9 December 1814 – 27 October 1854) was a British medical doctor and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He became a great authority on kidney diseases and published a comprehensive paper on urinary deposits in ...

(appointed 1836) *

James Paget Sir James Paget, 1st Baronet FRS HFRSE (11 January 1814 – 30 December 1899) (, rhymes with "gadget") was an English surgeon and pathologist who is best remembered for naming Paget's disease and who is considered, together with Rudolf Virc ...

(appointed 1841) * Charles West (appointed 1841)

References

{{reflist Organizations established in 1780 Charities based in London Medical and health organisations based in London Dispensaries in London