In celebration of the Royal College of Physicians’ 500th anniversary, the college’s museum is opening late on the first Thursday of the month during 2018.

Discover truly remarkable – but surprisingly little known – collections,  featuring everything from artworks by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Thomas Lawrence and Johann Zoffany, to scarce anatomical preparations and extraordinary medical instruments, all housed in a grade 1 listed ‘modernist masterpiece’ by Sir Denys Lasdun.

See free temporary exhibitions from our award winning team or take a brand new heritage trail through the last five hundred years examining the curious intersection of medicine, art and society.

Highlights of any visit include:

• priceless portraits and silver displayed throughout the building
• medical rarities such as the Symons collection of self-care instruments and medical apparatus, the Hoffbrand collection of apothecary jars and the Prujean chest of surgical tools from the time of the English Civil War
• an extraordinary set of 17th-century human remains, providing a fascinating insight into dissection and discovery in anatomy
• regular displays from our archive and rare books collections

Mark 500 years since Henry VIII brought England’s oldest royal medical college into existence by exploring five centuries of medicine, history, art and ideas in a museum half a millennium old.