Jimmy's

History

St James's University Hospital, often called Jimmy's, began as the Leeds Moral and Industrial Training School in 1848, a building that now makes up part of the Lincoln Wing. The Leeds Union Workhouse followed in 1858, and today it holds the Thackray Museum of Medicine. A Grade II listed chapel, finished in 1861 by the Leeds firm Perkin & Beckhouse, still stands. The Leeds Union Infirmary, built in 1874, sits where the Gledhow Wing is now.

By the late 1800s, these buildings were mostly used for treating the sick poor rather than housing paupers. During the First World War, the site became the East Leeds War Hospital, looking after military personnel. Dr James Allan served as Medical Superintendent from 1881. When he retired in 1925, the infirmary was renamed St James's Hospital to honour him and Sir James Ford of the Leeds Board of Guardians, who had pushed the shift from workhouse to hospital.

After the National Health Service began in 1948, the hospital grew, and the site was rebuilt in the 1960s. In 1967, it was one of the hospitals investigated after Barbara Robb's book Sans Everything came out. A State Enrolled Nurse faced accusations of assault, getting an elderly female patient drunk on ward-issued brandy, swearing at patients, and squirting spirit on elderly patients to shock them. Other claims of neglect and inefficiency were later found to be baseless. In 1970, after the Leeds School of Medicine expanded, it was renamed St James's University Hospital. The Chancellor's Wing, which included a new Accident and Emergency Department, was opened in February 1972 by the Duchess of Kent, then Chancellor of the University of Leeds.

A new oncology building, the Bexley Wing, was built under a Private Finance Initiative contract in 2004. Designed by Anshen & Allen and built by Bovis Lend Lease for £265 million, it houses the St James's Institute of Oncology and the Gamma Knife Centre. It took its first patients in December 2007 and was officially opened by the Princess Royal on 17 July 2008. The Bexley Wing is one of Europe's biggest cancer centres, with 1,600 staff and 350 beds.

2002 serial killer incident

In 2002, nurse Colin Norris, a serial killer, murdered two patients on the orthopaedics ward where he worked. He had come to St James's from Leeds General Infirmary, where it later came to light that he had already killed two others and tried to kill a third. His capture came when Dr Emma Ward ordered blood tests on Ethel Hall, who had a broken hip but inexplicably slipped into a hypoglycaemic coma; the tests showed she had been given a massive insulin injection. Norris's case went to the Court of Appeal in 2021.

2023 attempted bombing

In October 2025, Nathan Newby received the George Medal, Britain's second-highest civilian honor for bravery. Two years earlier, on 20 January 2023, Newby, a hospital patient, grew suspicious of 27-year-old student nurse Mohammad Farooq. Over two hours, Newby persuaded Farooq to surrender to police after he had left an explosive device outside the maternity ward. Farooq was arrested carrying a Gediz 9mm PAK semi-automatic pistol. Prosecutors stated he was motivated by radical Islam and had conducted hostile reconnaissance of an RAF base on 10 and 18 January, planning a lone wolf attack. He was charged with intending to commit terrorism between 12 July 2022 and 20 January 2023.

Facilities

All hospital buildings except Chancellor's Wing are named after surrounding streets in the Leeds suburb of Harehills. Beckett Wing houses Care of the Elderly; Bexley Wing houses Oncology; other wings are Gledhow Wing, Lincoln Wing, and Chancellor's Wing. The hospital is one of six centres conducting liver transplants and was the location of the first living-related donor liver transplantation on the NHS. The University of Leeds has a large presence on site, including the Wellcome Trust Brenner building. The Gledhow Wing contains a notable cystic fibrosis unit with its own management guidelines called the Cystic Fibrosis Leeds method of management. The Thackray Museum of Medicine adjoins the site in the Grade II listed former main building of the Leeds Union Workhouse.