Health & Disease
Discover how Londoners have faced plagues, pandemics and illness with these objects, stories and blogs.
Blogs-And-Stories
The Great Plague of 1665
An estimated 100,000 people died in London’s last major plague epidemic
How Florence Nightingale shaped London healthcare
Modern nursing has a lot to thank this 19th-century trailblazer for
Testy teeth! Dental interventions in 19th-century London
What three sets of teeth reveal about an individual’s dietary habits and socio-economic status
Lockdown in Stamford Hill
Grey Hutton’s photos of a north London Haredi Jewish community
Bioarchaeological evidence for Black women in 14th-century London
How much do we know about the people in medieval London?
Mary Seacole: Doctress of the Crimean War
The determined businesswoman and caregiver who looked after troops at war
Joseph Merrick: 'The Elephant Man'
The life of a Victorian Whitechapel resident made famous because of his physical disabilities
From fox lungs to fuming pots: 17th-century flu remedies
Explore London Museum artefacts that reveal a strange yet fascinating history of healing
Witches, medicine & magic through London’s history
In the face of widespread death and disease, early Londoners turned to the supernatural
Fired up about pipe finds: A Thames mudlark’s passion
While plain tobacco pipes are common, decorated ones are a special find for Germander Speedwell
Inside Homerton Hospital, 1988
A new hospital for Hackney – its patients and staff, needles and blood
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson: A pioneering doctor
The first woman in Britain to qualify as a doctor
John Snow: Cholera & the Broad Street pump
Sure that the deadly disease spread through water, Snow traced a cholera outbreak to a Soho water pump
