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Features
Maria Knöbel
Guest Writer
Once upon a time in a “land of poor
sanitation”, there was a medical student
called Cinderella. She was
“beautiful, intelligent, and quickwitted.
Quintessentially Barts… She
had four ugly sisters Listeria, Gonorrhoea,
Salmonella, and Flu. one
from Imperial, one from UCL, one
from GKT, and one from St. Georges.
Horrible girls. Horrible institutions.”
So read the opening narration for
a pantomime staged by the drama society
at Barts & The London Medical
School this year. Everyone is familiar
with this harmless rivalry exhibited
amongst the medical schools of London.
For many, it is so natural that no
one stops to consider its origins. Was
it always this way? When did it begin?
A Duelling Start
Rivalry amongst the medical
schools in London dates
far back to their foundations.
In 1826, to the great disapproval of
the elite, London University (now University
College London) was founded
with the support of non-Anglican
Christians, Jews, and Utilitarians.
It aimed to differentiate itself
from the religious nature of the Universities
of Oxford and Cambridge.
King’s College London was founded
almost immediately after in 1829 to
create a religious Anglican institution
in response to UCL. ‘Duel Day’,still
celebrated at King’s College annually
on the 21st of March, marks the date
of the famous duel in 1829 between
the Earl of Winchilsea and the Duke
of Wellington—both patrons of the
newly established King’s. The Earl
of Winchilsea wanted King’s to admit
only members of the Church of England
and accused Wellington of being
too supportive of the Catholic cause.
No blood was shed. both the Earl and
the Duke, fired, deliberately missed,
shook-hands, and reconciled. However,
King’s and UCL clearly got off
on the wrong foot from the cradle, and
thus was the beginning of a rivalry
that was to last into the next century.
This verse of a satirical song set
to the melody of the British national
anthem provides good insight into
how the religious and secular division
from the beginning was cen-
tral to the rivalry of the institutions:
The lyrics condemn the secular nature
of “the Godless University of
Gower Street”, and sentence it to
fall without protection of the church.
UCL’s non-religious nature also
played a key role in the jostle for the
position of third oldest university in
England - a title King’s also laid claim
on. Although UCL was founded 3
years before King’s, it was unable to
obtain a Royal Charter due to its secularity
and also because it claimed
the title “university”. King’s College
received its Royal Charter the same
year it was established, simply because
it provided Anglican education
and didn’t seek to become a university.
In truth, the word “university”
didn’t feature in its original charter at
all. However, neither institution was
able to confer their own degrees until
the establishment of the University of
London in 1836, of which they both became
colleges. In the meantime, students
sat exams to receive degrees of
Oxford or Cambridge. Tough times.
Today in the spirit of fairness, despite
having achieved royal charter
first, King’s only claims to be
the fourth oldest university in England
on their official website and
leaves UCL to claim third position.
Soon after the formation of the University
of London, there was a period of
rapid expansion and other institutions
began to join. One of the early birds to
join was St. George’s Hospital Medical
School, which had already been teaching
medicine since its establishment
in 1733. Other smaller medical colleges
in London continued to exist independently
of the University for over
150 years, and it wasn’t until the 1990s
that all the current big medical schools
of London as we know it came into existence.
The nineties saw the formation
of Barts and The London in its current
structure from the fusion of the London
Hospital Medical School, Queen
Mary & Westfield College, and the
Medical College of St. Bartholomew’s
Hospital (which had been teaching
medicine since 1123, making it the
oldest surviving hospital in England).
Then Imperial College School of
Medicine was formally established by
merging St Mary’s Hospital Medical
School, Charing Cross and Westminster
Medical School, the Royal Postgraduate
Medical School, and other medical
bodies. Still within the same decade,
the current UCL Medical School was
formed from the University College and
Middlesex School of Medicine and the
Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine.
And finally, King’s College Medical
School was reborn from King’s College
Hospital and the United Medical and
Dental Schools of Guy’s and St Thomas’
Hospitals. It was a busy decade for
alliances. When the nineties were over,
we were left with our current big five.
Fun and Games
Any medical student at any medical
school, will more often than not
be extremely loyal to their institution,
and be all too eager to dish out less
than flattering remarks about their
rival universities. There is the famous
George’s song, now revamped
and modernised, that quite cheer-
fully denigrates the other schools:
The legend behind the song is that
‘I don’t want to go to Mary’s
I don’t want to go to Bart’s
And they say the Royal Free, is
not the place to be
And Tommie’s is a place for
high-born fairies
UCL’s a dump in central London
King’s is a hovel on the strand
ON THE STRAND!
I’d rather go to George’s,
To merry, merry George’s
‘Cos George’s is the finest in the
land, ‘Cor Blimey!’
St. George himself wrote the original
words in celebration after heroically
slaying the great dragon. Allegedly,
there are two more verses to
the song that are shrouded in secrecy.
In the years since, other London medical
schools have created their own
songs, or re-written the George’s song
in retaliation. One slightly ruder version
of the song that GKT graduate Lucas
Rehnberg was delighted to sing for
me, replaces lines four onwards with:
February 2011 medicalstudent
Features Editor: Neha Pathak
features@medical-student.co.uk
The Godless students of Gower
Street and other stories
‘King’s College lads arise!
New Universities
Shall quickly fall;;
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their teaching tricks,
O, Church! on thee we fix
Maintain us all.’
All this rivalry
is just fun and
games, and we all
get along dandy.
Or do we?
A MODERN DAY RAG
King’s Vs Imperial
In keeping with tradition, King’s can be found at the centre of RAG rivalry.
Bored with their long-standing competition with UCL, they have moved onto
ICSM (more affectionately known as ‘Gimperial’). However, they seem to
be lacking in the planning (or brain) department.
In 2009, KIng’s planned their biggest raid of Imperial (think Grafitti et al)
but made the schoolboy error of announcing it on facebook. Naturally
the ‘Gimps’ discovered it, brought in security and had them promptly
disciplined. Good work.
The following year, ICSM retaliated. They tactfully invaded a King’s
lecture theatre and “improved” the powerpoint presentations. Much to
the lecturer’s surprise, the audience was met with ‘GKT Scum’ scrawled
across a slide. And if King’s are still wondering about those “missing
signs” a little birdie tells me that they’re safe at ‘Gimperial’ now...
The popular parody musical duo Am-
‘And George’s are a bunch of high
class w**kers
UCL is f***ing boring
And King’s is a hole on the Strand
ON THE STRAND!
I’d rather go to Guy’s!
To Merry, merryGuy’s!
And fornicate my f***ing life
away ‘Cor Blimey!’
ateur Transplants consisting of Dr.
Adam Kay and Dr. Suman Biswas who
both studied medicine at Imperial, have
also written songs ridiculing their rival
London medical schools. Their song
“Snippets” mocks the competence of
consultants at King’s, and “Careless
Surgeon” plays on the popular stereotype
of Barts students not knowing any
anatomy. Finally, in case you were beginning
to think some were spared, “Always
Look on the Bright Side of Life”
ridicules every other medical school.
But we clearly love it. Amateur
Transplants have had huge success
amongst medical students and frequently
performs live at the very medi-