The Toast the City Awards judging process is underway, with judges now visiting shortlisted venues across London’s Square Mile after public voting has closed.
The awards span multiple categories including best bars, restaurants, hotels, coffee shops, and cultural venues spread throughout the City of London.
The head judge recently visited Barts North Wing for the first time despite working in the area for almost 17 years, describing the admission as a source of mild embarrassment.
The North Wing has been nominated in both the Best Art or Culture Experience and Best New Opening categories following a year-long renovation programme that recently concluded.
Barts North Wing is not the kind of place a visitor would stumble upon by accident, tucked away near St Bartholomew the Great, London’s oldest parish church.
The entrance to the hospital courtyard sits beside the William Wallace Memorial, and visitors pass St Bartholomew the Less before reaching their destination, a wonderfully named smaller church on the route.
During a recent visit, the sound of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor being played on the organ could be heard drifting from St Bartholomew the Less as visitors passed.
A grand yet unassuming green door in the courtyard leads into the North Wing, a structure built in 1732 and designed by architect James Gibbs for the benefit of wealthy patrons.
Gibbs, influenced by Italian Renaissance architect Palladio and Sir Christopher Wren, created a stunning carved staircase that rises dramatically toward the Great Hall above.
The North Wing was conceived in the era before the NHS, with the hospital hoping its opulent design would persuade wealthy benefactors to part with generous donations.
William Hogarth’s vast mural of the Good Samaritan dominates the Great Hall, using the likenesses of real-life hospital patients, complete with their medical conditions, transplanted into the biblical scene.
The mural is described as an astonishing piece, incongruous with the working hospital it is attached to, yet entirely compelling in its scale and ambition.
Painstaking restoration work carried out during the renovation has left the Hogarth mural looking as vibrant as the day the paint first dried, according to the head judge.
Perhaps most remarkably, entry to Barts North Wing and its celebrated Hogarth Stair and Great Hall is entirely free to the public, making it an accessible City landmark for all.
Whether the venue ultimately claims one of the Toast the City Awards remains to be decided, but it stands as a compelling and worthy contender in both of its nominated categories.