well, not exactly a museum - a new exhibition up on the first floor of the Science Museum in Kensington, London.
A large exhibit of the stones as well as many other curiosities.
From Saturday.
In the new Wellcome Galleries.
Website - https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/medicine-wellcome-galleries
Omg I should go to this. Ever since reading Sarah Bakewell’s (fabulous) biography of Montaigne and learning that he died from complications from kidney stones, I have been fascinated by those disgusting little things!!!!
Eewwwwwwww!!
I don't care what celebrities passed them. TMI.
My husband will love this, haha. Thanks, Nigel!
As the Hunterian Museum near Lincoln's Inn is closed for a few years, this will provide a nice alternative ;-)
edit: just watched the video in the link you provided. They have the medicine chest taken on the Antarctic expedition by Captain Scott! We saw some of its contents (morphine, etc.), carried by the men near the end, at the Polar Museum in Cambridge a few days ago. Amazing.
Hahaha! I agree with Laura - an alternative to the Hunterian Museum which I am sure had stones of various etiologies!
For you gallstone fans, be sure to visit the Muetter Museum in Philadelphia.
http://muttermuseum.org/
I am always on the look out for some sort of weird/morbid/mummy type exhibit - this could be the ticket! I'm taking my nephew on his first trip overseas to London and Amsterdam next summer, I'm hoping he'll humor me with a quick stop at this :) Thanks for sharing Nigel!
**edited to add: my nephew thinks this is a fantastic idea and is now very excited to go see this! :)
Thanks for posting this. It sounds like the medicine galleries are a permanent exhibit? (any idea how long the gallstone/kidney stone exhibit will be on for?).
I'm hoping to run up to London in the next few weeks and have a look and make further comments.
I think it is now a permanent exhibit.
If anybody gets over to the Science Museum before me, maybe they will report what they found.
Nigel
Don’t you mean “down “ to London
When I travel I go “up to the Gold Coast or Brisbane “ or “ down to Sydney or Melbourne “
Regards
Phil
Nope, even though I will be travelling south to reach London, no matter where I start my trip it is always Up to London. It has the same entymology as "running up to town".
And on the railway - my heritage - train lines always (well almost always) go up towards the large town or city and down away from it.
So the Up line goes towards London - or Birmingam, Manchester, Worcester, Liverpool etc., for regional lines - and down going away.
Your exactly correct Nigel
Our rail system must have been influenced by the English way
Not “ must “ but was
Just remember we are from “ Down Under “
Sorry to hi-jack the original post
the end
Fascinating about the railway language of going UP to the main city and coming down away!
Some days one really does learn something new.
"Some days one really does learn something new."
Which is a great excuse for checking the forum every day, lol!
It's odd that the topic of up/down in relation to London came up today. I've just been reading a novel and one of the characters kept saying he was going UP to London. I kept thinking .... They're in Yorkshire, so it's south/down not north.... and just thought the author had made an error even though she is British. Well, now I know! I was mistaken.
It does fall under the category: "something I haven't seen yet". So I will probably check it out next time I am in London. Is it very crowded? Or any time a day its good to go?
as it is a new gallery it will likely have a flurry of activity, and then drop off.
Basic advice on museum row, the V&A, Science and Natural History Museums, is avoid school half-term holidays. Weekends can be busy, especially if the weather is not good. Weekdays during term time will have school groups which invade in herds.
So what I do is avoid half-term.
When is half term in the spring?
It varies slightly from council to council and between state schools and fee-paying schools, but they are generally close.
A cut and paste from the City of Westminster schools webpage:
SPRING TERM Monday 6 January - Friday 14 February 2020
School holiday Monday 17 February - Friday 21 February 2020
Monday 24 February - Friday 3 April 2020
School holiday Monday 6 April - Friday 17 April 2020
(Easter weekend 10 - 13 April 2020)
SUMMER TERM Monday 20 April - Friday 22 May 2020
(May Day Bank Holiday will be taken on 8 May 2020)
School holiday Monday 25 May - Friday 29 May 2020
(Spring Bank Holiday will be taken on 25 May 2020)
I was there today...the medicine galleries are really stunning. It takes up just about the entire second floor and covers everything from the history of modern medicine to medical traditions in other cultures.
The kidney/gallstones is one case amongst hundreds. There another case with pickled things in jars but certainly nothing like the Hunterian for sheer volume of specimens. But the variety of topics make it very interesting.
It’s definitely part of the permanent collection...not a temporary exhibition.
thanks for the report.
how were the crowds on its first Monday?
It was lovely and quiet; empty even.
That would be so cool! Too bad I'm not travelling that way in the forseeable future. I love an odd museum/exhibition.
Someone already mentioned the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia, PA. I found it fascinating.
I'd add the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto. http://batashoemuseum.ca/
