The Royal Free, University College and Middlesex Medical Students Association has a proud and illustrious past. Formed in the wake of the merger between the three constituent medical schools in 1998, it has since gone from strength to strength and now provides social events, sports teams, societies, welfare services, educational services and representation to the 1200 or so medical students at UCL Medical School. UCL Medical School itself was formed over a number of years from the merger of three different institutions the Middlesex Hospital, University College Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital. The Middlesex Hospital was opened in Fitzrovia in 1745 by Charles Bell and had its first cohort of medical students join in 1746. University College Hospital was opened in 1834 as the North London Hospital, with the purpose of providing the then newly opened University College London with a hospital to train medical students.