Somewhere in Waterford City, a place name quietly preserves the memory of a medieval institution that has otherwise almost entirely vanished from view. The area known as Hospital takes its name from the Hospital of St John the Evangelist, a religious house whose origins stretch back to the late twelfth century. In medieval usage, a hospital was not primarily a place of medical treatment in the modern sense, but a house of hospitality and religious charity, often caring for the poor, the sick, or pilgrims, and run by a religious community.

The foundation is attributed, at least tentatively, to King John, with a possible date of 1185, placing it among the older ecclesiastical establishments in the city. What makes it particularly unusual is its connection across the Irish Sea: in 1204 it was united with the Benedictine priory at Bath in England, bringing an Irish urban hospital into formal institutional relationship with one of England's older monastic houses. The arrangement meant the Waterford house operated under Benedictine influence, and it housed both monks and nuns, a mixed community that continued at least until the close of the fifteenth century. The house was also associated with the chapel of St Leonard, which formed part of the Benedictine priory in the city. That dual religious and charitable function, combined with its transregional ties, gives the institution a character somewhat distinct from the more familiar mendicant friaries and parish churches of medieval Waterford.