 The hospital was founded by Henry Obre and John Woolcott, both surgeons, at St John's Place in Lisson Grove as the St Marylebone Eye and Ear Institution in 1856.It moved to a larger facilities in Marylebone Road in 1860 and an out-patients department was opened by the Marquess of Ripon in 1904.After the existing facility at Marylebone Road became very dilapidated, a new purpose-built facility was built on the same site and opened in March 1930.