16 April 2025
Philip Smith
John Chambers was a Professor of Clinical Cardiology in London. He combined life-long passions for medicine and art and started collecting art whilst a medical student in Cambridge, where he was inspired by repeated visits to the Kettles Yard house and gallery.
John became determined to acquire an extraordinary art collection to display in a domestic environment. He wanted to be able to live amongst his pieces and experience them viscerally. For John, art was never simply decorative.
John’s heart was lost to the work of the St Ives artists and ceramicists of the mid 20th century. He would visit Cornwall regularly to frequent the galleries and also to meet contemporary artists. Returning from his regular trips to the South West invariably involved loading up the car with new works to find space for back in London. Towards the end of his life, John split his time between London and Bath, where his beautiful Georgian town house proved a perfect repository to display his, by now extensive, collection.
For many years, John’s perfect Saturday off duty would entail mooching around his favourite galleries in London, followed by a lunch of fine food and wine. He was endlessly curious and interested in all genres of art so his collection developed eclectically and reflected his cosmopolitan tastes and zest for life.
John was a highly respected expert in heart valve disease. He instigated numerous clinical standards for the specialty and created many innovatory services. It is fitting that his peers chose to mark his contribution to Guy’s Hospital by hanging a painting by one of his beloved St Ives artists in the waiting room of the valve clinic he set up.
The professional world saw John as an internationally recognised Cardiologist, renowned for his kindness and exceptional intelligence. But his art was his real essence.
