You may, or may not, have heard of the BBC Radio 4 programme The Museum of Curiosities. Well, now meet my “Curiosities of Museums”, museums in (mainly) the City of London, and – like my previous posts in this series – less well-known than the biggies like the V&A, British Museum etc.
The most famous lesser-known museum in these parts is probably Sir John Soane’s Museum, in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. It used to house the famous architect Sir John Soane, and now it houses the thousands of weird and wonderful objects he amassed over a lifetime of collecting. To be honest, there’s so much stuff in there it’s all a bit overwhelming – and, I should imagine, a nightmare for anyone who doesn’t like dusting. https://www.soane.org
Across Lincoln’s Inn Fields from the Soane’s Museum is another famous un-famous museum – the Hunterian collection of medical specimens at the HQ of the Royal College of Surgeons. It was fascinating when I went there, but it’s closed for a re-vamp – until 2021! (https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums-and-archives/hunterian-museum)
However, while the Hunterian is closed, how about this as an alternative?:
https://www.qmul.ac.uk/pathologymuseum/about
It’s basically the collection of pathology specimens built up over two centuries to be used in teaching medical students at St Bartholomew’s Hospital (aka Barts). But now, due to changes in medical training, it’s more a museum than a teaching facility.
It’s not open often, but when it is, it’s well worth visiting (if you’re not squeamish, I suppose). They host special one-off events, too: taxidermy classes, anyone?
Not far away is another Barts-related, medical-themed museum: St Bartholomew’s Hospital Museum & Archives: https://bartsheritage.org.uk/museum-and-history
It’s small but really interesting – displaying items from the hospital’s collection of records, medical instruments and forensic specimens and the like, dating from the 12th Century. And in how many other museums would you find yourself (as I did) sharing the building with delegates to “The 9th Annual Fungal Update meeting”?
Nearby, and also on a medicine-related theme, is the Museum of the Order of St John: http://museumstjohn.org.uk/
It’s thanks to this museum that, history graduate that I am, I learned the difference between Knights Templar and Knights Hospitallers. (The former was more of a fighting order, established to protect pilgrims to the Holy Land; the latter, who became known as the Knights of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, started out running hospitals and looking after the sick of the Holy Land. The Hospitallers were the precursor/s of the modern-day St John Ambulance.)
The museum doesn’t contain just objects relating to the Knights Hospitallers and the St John Ambulance, but things like pharmacy jars, medical equipment… and a cannon made for the Order by King Henry VIII.
This last museum is across the river (via London Bridge) from the others, and is one of my absolute favourites in London, because it’s so absolutely rank – in the best way possible.
It’s The Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garret: http://www.oldoperatingtheatre.com
Which is exactly what it says on the tin: a (once-) working operating theatre, which was bricked up in the middle of the 19th Century and re-discovered by accident around a century later.
It is, apparently, the only 19th Century operating theatre in Europe, and it is awesome! If you have a strong stomach, that is, or are not due to have an operation shortly after your visit. “I’ll go for the surgeon with the bloodiest coat, please, because all that blood means he’s done lots of operations and knows what he’s doing…”
Oh, and if you’re feeling up to it after all that, there’s a bonus literally just around the corner: the George Inn, the last remaining galleried inn in London, now owned by the National Trust but still a ‘working’ pub, serving massive plates of tasty dinner. Tuck in! (Maybe give the liver and kidney dishes a miss though, eh?)
10,000 Miles & More 