The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust is an acute general teaching hospital situated in Archway, in the north of Islington. We primarily serve the communities of north Islington and west Haringey, a population of approximately 250,000 people. The hospital also treats a significant number of patients from Camden, Barnet and Hackney. We have 467 beds and employ over 2,000 staff.

The Whittington is one of the teaching hospitals of the University of London. We provide clinical placements for undergraduates and we also have a large post-graduate training centre. In addition, we provide training for a wide range of other health professionals including nurses, midwives, radiographers and dieticians.

Medical services have been delivered on the Whittington site since 1473, when a leper hospital was founded. In 1848, a new hospital was built on the St Mary's site, to care for patients with smallpox during the period of epidemic.

Independently managed hospitals were opened on the Highgate site in 1866 and the Archway site in 1877. In 1900, Highgate Hill Infirmary opened adjacent to the Smallpox and Vaccination Hospital. The two hospitals soon amalgamated, and the Smallpox Hospital was transformed into a nurses' home.

In 1946, the hospitals on all three sites were brought together. The three hospitals had between them almost 2,000 beds.

With the coming of the National Health Service in 1948, they jointly became The Whittington Hospital and began to modernise. The hospital is now on the central St Mary's site, and has 470 beds.