The Wellcome Collection - reliving medical history

Over the Christmas holidays I had some visitors, spurring me on to visit some new touristy spots in London.

By Kings Cross Station on Euston Road, the Wellcome Collection is an extension of the Wellcome Trust - "the world's largest independent charitable foundation funding research into human and animal health." They are responsible for mapping the human genome, and donate £600 million towards biochemical research. Not bad for a company that started out in the 1800s selling pharmaceuticals! 

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Founded in the 1880s, Henry Wellcome started collecting a huge variety of objects, paintings, and artifacts that relate to how people have viewed and interacted with medicine through the ages. While a lot of his original collection has been given to the British Museum and other displas, what is left is impressive. 

The current collection boasts everything from glass vials to Napoleon's razor, Souix charms to ward off illness, classical paintings of illness, doctors and birthing, to tiny anatomy dolls made from whale bone. 

Moving on from Mr Wellcome's original collection, there is another interactive area that looks at work that the Wellcome Trust has done, including the machine used to map the human genome, malaria and disease prevention, a human body section, and a section devoted to obesity. What I found most enjoyable was the diverse range of mediums used to explore the themes. There were a huge number of audio booths with experts talking about the topic, along with interactive videos and artwork exploring each theme. 

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In particular, the narrow nature of the collection makes it extremely interesting - it provides a picture into a very specific area of human nature, much like London's National Portrait Gallery.  Also, the collection is small enough to complete in a few hours - a satisfying rarity in London's endless epic museum landscape! As an added bonus, the collection is nearly child-free, unlike the Science and Natural History Museums which are flooded with kids (although of course they are designed for them). 

Getting there and away

The collection is a short walk down Euston Road from the British Library.  The closest tube stations are Kings Cross, St Pancras International, Euston, and Euston Square.