Just down this narrow paved passage, you will spot a pair of dark wooden double doors set beneath a pale stone archway, with a glass lantern suspended right above the entrance. The York Medical Society was formed back in 1832, two years before the city even had a medical school. For decades, this pioneering group of doctors wandered. They rented rooms in hospitals and houses around the city, dragging their medical texts with them. But in 1915, they finally found a lasting home right here at 23 Stonegate.
The building itself is a late sixteenth-century house. Up near the roofline, there is a rainwater head from 1590, which is actually the oldest surviving one in all of York. Inside, the old dining room, beautifully decorated with classic circular wall ornaments known as paterae, now serves as their lecture hall.
The society purchased the building outright in 1944, but its medical history goes back even further. In the late nineteenth century, this was the home of a truly fascinating man named Tempest Anderson. His plaque is still visible by the entrance. Tempest was a respected surgeon by trade, but he had a remarkably dangerous passion. He was a volcanologist. You have to admire a man who spent his days delicately operating on patients, and his holidays hiking up active, smoking craters.
The society is also known for its annual oration, a formal speech that began in 1890. I love the story of the 1909 gathering. The famous physician Sir William Osler arrived to give a serious talk titled The Beginning of Medicine. He stepped up to the podium expecting to see a room filled purely with medical professionals. Instead, he found a wonderfully diverse crowd staring back at him, which even included the local Dean of York. Osler was absolutely delighted by this curious mix of everyday thinkers. At the banquet that followed, he stood up and raised a glass to the city, specially praising the brilliant, eccentric medical minds who had built this society from the ground up.
It is wonderful to think of all those curious individuals gathering behind these heavy wooden doors to share their discoveries. Take a look at the intricate stonework, and let's stroll on to see what lies ahead.
