Take a walking tour with professional City of Westminster guides to uncover the secret histories of London and medicine. The tours lead you through the streets and stories that have made London a city of sickness and a city of cures for over a thousand years.
From blue-blooded Royalty to body snatchers, anatomists to anaesthetists, physicians and pharmacists to the founding fathers of the NHS.
Walks start at the Royal College of Physicians at 2pm, Wednesdays, June – October 2013 and include a short tour of the College’s iconic building designed by Sir Denys Lasdun and located on Regent’s Park, before heading off to explore the streets of medical London.
The 2013 programme features the following exciting strolls. Find out more at Discover Medical London.
‘Harley Street: Healers and Hoaxers’
24 July, 21 August, 18 and 25 September
Take a stroll along and around one of the best-known medical streets in the world and See where some of the most famous practitioners in the history of medicine plied their trade.
Sir Frederick Treaves physician to “The Elephant Man”, Lionel Logue the actor turned therapist made a household name in the film “The King’s Speech” and less reputable characters like the notorious John St John Long, the “King of the Quacks”.
Perhaps appropriately for a medical walk, the tour finishes at Cavendish Square: temporary home for a hygienic statue made entirely from soap…
‘The Making of Thoroughly Modern Medicine’
14 August, 11 September and 9 October
Learn how a murky world of mercury cures and caffeine enemas, leeches and bloodletting galore was transformed into one of the most respected professions at the cutting edge of science.
Travel the city’s present day medical quarter taking in renowned institutions University College Hospital and the Olympic Medical Institute as well less well known sites such as the home of the eccentric father of modern food hygiene!
The walk concludes at the acclaimed exhibitions and library of The Wellcome Collection.
‘Fit to Rule’
28th August and 16th October
Meander around fashionable Marylebone’s ‘Medical Mile’ and finish up by taking the air in ever so Royal Regent’s Park.
Inspired by the recent TV series ‘Fit to Rule’, hear tales of Britain’s rulers and how they had their fingers on the pulse of London’s developing healthcare sector.
See the places where the mighty sought treatment and you might even find out whether they were actually mentally or physically fit enough to be in charge at all!
Image: detail from The Cow-Pock—or—the Wonderful Effects of the New Inoculation, James Gillray, 1802
| Duration | 24 July 2013 - 16 October 2013 |
| Times | 2pm |
| Cost | £10 - no advance booking is required – simply arrive around 10-15 minutes before the start |
| Venue | Royal College of Physicians |
| Address | 11 St Andrews Place London NW1 4LE, , |
| Contact | 020 3075 1649 / discovermedicallondon@gmail.com / www.rcplondon.ac.uk/museum-and-garden/events/discover-medical-london-guided-walks |
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