St. Mungo’s Hospital
St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries is named after its founder Mungo Bonham and is located, well hidden, in Central London. From the outside it seems to be an old, dilapidated red-brick house, allegedly housing a store called “Purge & Dowse Ltd.”. The house is closed for repairs, the doors and windows are dusty and old mannequins are on display in the shop windows. Their wigs have slipped and they are wearing clothes that were fashionable ten years before. The Muggles don’t pay attention to the building because of its unpleasant exterior and don’t notice if someone enters or leaves.
The entrance is located at a shop window with only one especially ugly mannequin inside. If someone whispers the reason for visiting the hospital to the mannequin, it nods and enables the visitor to walk through the window with a movement of its finger.
Right after passing through the window, one is not visible anymore from the outside. Furthermore the interior does not resemble the old, dilapidated building at all. One enters into a big reception area where patients wait to be treated and guests can ask which floor to go to at the information desk. On the wall right behind the blonde, chubby receptionist sitting at the desk, there are several signs explaining how to avoid diseases and poisoning. There also is a portrait of Dilys Derwent, an especially famous healer and former headmistress of Hogwarts.
Of course there also is a big sign pointing out the different floors just as in any Muggle hospital.
ARTIFACT ACCIDENTS…………………………..Ground Floor
Cauldron explosions, wands backfiring,
broom crashes and so forth
CREATURE-INDUCED INJURIES…………………First Floor
Bites, stings, burns
embedded spines, etc.
MAGICAL BUGS AND DISEASES………………..Second Floor
Contagious maladies such as dragon pox,
Vanishing Sickness, Scrofungulus and more.
POTIONS AND PLANT POISONING……………...Third Floor
Rashes, regurgitation, uncontrollable giggling and so on.
SPELL DAMAGE……………………………………Fourth Floor
Unliftable jinxes, hexes, incorrectly applied charms, etc.
VISITOR’S TEAROOM/HOSPITAL SHOP………...Fifth Floor
IF YOU ARE UNSURE WHERE TO GO, INCAPABLE OF NORMAL SPEECH OR UNABLE TO REMEMBER WHY YOU ARE HERE, OUR WELCOME WITCH WILL GLADLY ASSIST YOU.
As soon as you know where to go, you walk through a double door leading into a long hallway with several doors, lit by candles floating below the ceiling in big crystal balls. Portaits showing famous Healers are hanging on the wall.
You can see Healers walking in between the patients, making notes or hurrying through the corridors everywhere. One recognizes them because of their lime-green robes and the emblem showing a wand crossed with a bone.
A stairwell leads to the upper floors. Each floor is divided in wards, which are named after famous wizards. The names of the Healer-in-Charge and his trainee are shown at the door of every ward. As all doors in the hospital they are double doors with little windows. The patients’ rooms are panelled with oak and are lit by floating crystal balls. You can also see portraits of healers there.
The Janus Thickey Ward for patients with permanent spell damage is located on the fourth floor. The patients are locked away from all the others and have more personal furnishing. For example Gilderoy Lockhart, suffering from loss of memory, who has a wall full of self-portraits. The famous Aurors Alice and Frank Longbottom are also patients of this ward. They are separated from the other patients by an opaque curtain.
