A plan of the ground and building in the Strand called the Savoy, taken in the year 1736

Once a fortified palace, the area of the Savoy is here taken up by a prison and prison yard, barracks, a hospital and a French church. The palace structure was badly damage during the Peasant Revolt of 1381, and in 1505 Henry VII ordered the palace to be rebuilt as a hospital, with St John the Baptist as its patron saint. By the 16th and 17th centuries the hospital was being misused. Stow wrote that vagabonds often spent the night at the hospital after idling in the grounds during the day. The hospital was first used for soldiers in 1627 after the expedition to La Rochelle to help the Huguenots. By 1695 Sir Christopher Wren had built a military prison on the site. In 1661, after the Savoy conference about religious problems, French Protestants were given the use of the little chapel, rebuilt by Wren in 1685. The site was cleared from 1816 to 20 to make the approach to Waterloo Bridge.