Royal College of Physicians Museum

Founded by royal charter in 1518, the Royal College of Physicians is the oldest medical college in England. Its collections of books, manuscripts, portraits, silver, and medical artefacts are housed in the college’s Grade I listed headquarters, designed by architect Denys Lasdun and opened in 1964. On view is the Portrait Collection, showing leading physicians from the last 500 years in works by Joshua Reynolds, Johan Zoffany, Thomas Lawrence, Elizabeth Frink and others, the Silver Collection, the Symons Collection of medical instruments and the Hoffbrand Collection of apothecary jars. The medicinal garden contains over 1,300 plants, each used in some way as medicine around the world over the past 3,000 years. Tours (£5 per person) of the museum and garden can be booked.