The benefaction by which Thomas Guy founded the well-known hospital was one of the largest in London since the Reformation. His monument states that he 'rivalled the endowments of Kings'; for once, an 18th-century eulogy is no exaggeration. He founded his hospital in 1721.




The chapel is the central part of the west wing of the front quadrangle. This wing was added to the designs of Richard Jupp in 1774-7. The interior is almost square and has north and south galleries supported on thin wooden columns with Ionic capitals painted blue. The mural memorial panels of mosaic and opus sectile under the galleries were made by James Powell, 1904. Their dark Edwardian detail stands out in the otherwise light Georgian interior. The sanctuary has a simple marble surround to the arch, by Louis Osman, 1956, in place of a reredos. The stained glass in the windows above commemorates William Hunt (died 1829), the hospital's greatest benefactor after Guy. Against the opposite wall, there stands John Bacon's renowned statue of Guy, made in 1779. It shows the founder helping a suffering man into his hospital, framed by an arch with a green marble surround and enclosed by a semicircular railing. The inscription is paraphrased by the motto on the arms above: 'to give is better than to receive'.