William Marsden (1796-1867) was born in a house close to this site in August 1796. As a young man, he left Sheffield to study at St. Bartholomew's Hospital and was admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1827. In 1828, he founded the country's first free hospital, the Royal Free Hospital, which was base don the principle "the disease and poverty should be the only claims for admission" In 1851, following the death of his wife from cancer, he opened a cancer hospital which is now known as the Royal Marsden.