Where exactly is St Jude’s?
Yes, it’s another The Hidden Truth post, because why not obsess about nearly non-existent obscure 1960s TV shows? (A motto I am prepared to live by, as you’ll have worked out by now.)
Of course, given that we have less than 1/4 of the series left, it’s also pretty much unanswerable, but I see no reason not to a) ask the internet about the backdrop and b) speculate wildly regardless.
So, St Jude’s hospital is not a real hospital. It’s based in London somewhere, and, judging from the backdrop, probably on the periphery of central London (as opposed to dead centre or along the north bank of the Thames). It’s a teaching hospital. It has a noted pathology department led by a world-famous expert in the field (Professor Lazard seems to spend a lot of time jet-setting off to give lectures, write books, and deal with cases on royal demand).
The biggest clue is the view from Professor Lazard’s window(s). We see this several times in each episode, from several angles:
We can see here that it’s part of a modern wing of the hospital (as the other wing projecting out at a right angle suggests). It’s quite high up, so the lack of London landmarks on the skyline suggests it’s not very central, as it’s almost impossible to avoid all London landmarks from a height in that case. The hospital also has older buildings as part of the complex, of which we can see the rooftops and chimneys. This is pretty typical for a hospital of the era, though. (Old workhouse infirmaries and charity hospitals incorporated into the new NHS.)
Whether all we can see is the hospital complex or not, I don’t know. The most significant building is this large one - another part of the hospital, office block, flats, or multi-storey car-park, maybe? Does it look familiar to anyone who knows London?
(Amusingly, though, it is nearer/further away in some episodes than others!!)
The wider view at other points is generally trees and rooftops, nothing very distinctive, other than said block.
What is said re. location in canon? In Sweets to the Sweet, a young man collapses in the West End (filmed in Marble Arch Underground car-park) and is rushed to St Jude’s, but that doesn’t mean it has to be the nearest hospital, although it could well be.
In Cross Examination, a man who died within their area has his autopsy performed at St Luke’s mortuary (presumably St Luke’s Chelsea, then used for geriatric patients), but again, whether that is because it’s close or for other reasons is impossible to say.
Both of these would suggest it might be somewhere on the western periphery of central London.
However, Cross Examination, suggests that it’s situated in a run-down area of London with a high crime-rate (according to the police inspector) and then there’s the matter of names. The streets mentioned as being near the hospital are all as carefully non-existent as the hospital - Hanley Street, close to Balkan Street, near “the bomb-site.”
Balkan St is more unusual - the only Balkan-anything in London is Balkan Way, in Shadwell, which would fit with the vaguely south/east vibe of the run down/crooked & the not yet filled in bomb site. But then, so could a lot of London areas!
Then there’s St Jude’s itself. The most prominent St Jude’s parish in London was in Bethnal Green, north of Shadwell. In 1964, there were two hospitals based there: Bethnal Green Hospital, close to St Jude’s Street, where a Group Pathology lab had been established in 1954, with a nearby Cardiac/Chest specialist hospital (which, if amalgamated, could fit with the West End patient being taken there, as there were chest complications).
Basically, unless something on the skyline of the view above looks familiar to someone, or more of the series is found, it’s completely impossible to say. Maybe they never committed even to a rough area anyway! But until proven otherwise, I’m going to imagine it’s somewhere roughly on the eastern edge of central London, vaguely Bethnal Green-Stepney-Whitechapel-Shadwell way, because I like my random theory and shaky detective work. ;-p
