Royal College of Surgeons, London N/A

The origins of the Royal College of Surgeons of London date to the fourteenth century with the foundation of the "Guild of Surgeons Within the City of London". The ongoing dispute between the surgeons and barber surgeons dragged on until an agreement was signed between them in 1493, giving the fellowship of surgeons the power of incorporation. The union was formalised further in 1540 by Henry VIII between the Worshipful Company of Barbers (incorporated 1462) and the Guild of Surgeons to form the Company of Barber-Surgeons. In 1745 the surgeons broke away from the barbers to form the Company of Surgeons. In 1800 the Company was granted a Royal Charter to become the Royal College of Surgeons in London. A further charter in 1843 granted it the present title of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

The Company of Surgeons moved from Surgeon's Hall in Old Bailey to a site at 41 Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1797. Construction of the first College building, to a design by George Dance the Younger, and James Lewis, took from 1805 to 1813. In 1833 Sir Charles Barry won the public competition to design a replacement. The library and portico of this building are all that remain today after a German incendiary bomb hit the College in 1941.

In 1799 the government purchased the collection of John Hunter, which was presented to the College. This formed the basis of the Hunterian Collection, which has since been supplemented by an Odontological Collection, and the natural history collections of Richard Owen.