st._mungo_039:s_hospital_for_magical_maladies_and_injuries

St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries

St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries is the primary, and likely only, wizarding hospital in Great Britain. It was founded in the 1600s by the famous Healer Mungo Bonham. It is a public institution dedicated to treating a wide array of magic-related ailments, from spell damage to creature-inflicted wounds. The hospital is cleverly concealed from Muggle view. Its public entrance is located in London through a seemingly abandoned, red-brick department store named Purge and Dowse, Ltd. The shop front appears grimy and its window displays feature dusty mannequins in outdated fashions. To gain entry, a witch or wizard must address a specific mannequin in the window, which will give a small nod and gesture for them to walk through the glass as if it were water. Inside, the reception area is often crowded and chaotic, filled with witches and wizards suffering from bizarre magical afflictions. A Welcome Witch sits at an enquiry desk to direct patients and visitors. The hospital is staffed by Healers, who are the magical equivalent of doctors and are distinguished by their lime-green robes.

Role in the Story

St. Mungo's is a key location in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. After Arthur Weasley is savagely attacked by Voldemort's snake, Nagini, he is taken to St. Mungo's for urgent care. Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and the Weasley children visit him there over Christmas, providing Harry his first look inside the wizarding world's medical center. During one of these visits, Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermione accidentally encounter their former Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Gilderoy Lockhart, who remains a permanent patient due to a backfired Memory Charm. More significantly, they witness Neville Longbottom visiting his parents, Frank and Alice Longbottom. They learn that Neville's parents were Aurors who were tortured into insanity with the Cruciatus Curse by Death Eaters, including Bellatrix Lestrange. This moment is a profound and sombre revelation for Harry and a crucial point of character development for Neville. Later in the same book, Minerva McGonagall is admitted to St. Mungo's to recover after being hit with four simultaneous Stunning Spells while defending Rubeus Hagrid from Dolores Umbridge and other Ministry of Magic officials. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Katie Bell is sent to St. Mungo's for several months of treatment after she comes into contact with a cursed opal necklace intended for Albus Dumbledore. The hospital is also mentioned as a destination for the injured following the Battle of the Astronomy Tower and the Battle of Hogwarts.

The hospital is organized into different floors, each specializing in a particular type of magical malady or injury.

  • Ground Floor: Artefact Accidents: This floor deals with injuries from cauldron explosions, wand backfiring, broom crashes, and other object-related mishaps. The main Reception is also located here.
  • First Floor: Creature-Induced Injuries: Treats bites, stings, burns, and embedded spines from various magical creatures. This floor contains the 'Dangerous' Dai Llewellyn Ward for Serious Bites, where Arthur Weasley was treated for Nagini's venomous attack.
  • Second Floor: Magical Bugs: This is the ward for contagious magical illnesses like Dragon Pox, Scrofungulus, and Spattergroit.
  • Third Floor: Potion and Plant Poisoning: Treats patients suffering from rashes, regurgitation, uncontrollable giggling, and other maladies caused by misapplied potions or dangerous magical plants.
  • Fourth Floor: Spell Damage: Specializes in treating unliftable jinxes, hexes, incorrectly applied charms, and other forms of permanent spell damage. The Janus Thickey Ward for long-term residents is on this floor, which housed patients like Gilderoy Lockhart and the Longbottoms.
  • Fifth Floor: Visitor's Tearoom and Hospital Shop: A floor dedicated to visitors, offering a place to rest and purchase refreshments, “Get Well” cauldrons, and other magical gifts.
  • The name “Mungo” is likely a tribute to Saint Mungo, the 6th-century patron saint of Glasgow, Scotland. Saint Mungo was famed for performing four miracles, fitting for the founder of a magical hospital.
  • Information about the hospital's founder, Mungo Bonham, comes from supplementary material written by J.K. Rowling. (Pottermore)
  • In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the hospital's interior is depicted as cleaner and more orderly than the chaotic version described in the book. The visit to Arthur Weasley's ward is condensed and combined with the discovery of Gilderoy Lockhart and the Longbottoms in a single scene. (film)