Florence Nightingale Museum
Inside St Thomas’ Hospital, this compact museum traces Nightingale’s life from privileged statistician to reformer who rebuilt nursing with data, training and sanitation. Expect letters, field kit from the Crimea, her famous ‘lamp’ and the story of how charts changed survival. Small but dense, with hands-on bits for children; most visits run 60–90 minutes.
Opening Hours
Admissions
What's not to miss inside?
The Crimean Story
How logistics, hygiene and data cut deathsNightingale’s wards flipped outcomes not by heroics but by systems: ventilation, laundry, supplies—and counting.
📍 Introductory gallery
The Lamp & Legend
Icon versus realityThe ‘Lady with the Lamp’ image sold the story; the reality was paperwork, procurement and training at scale.
📍 Central case
Statistics & the ‘Coxcomb’
Persuasion by pictureHer polar area chart made ministers see deaths as fixable, not fate—early data-viz that moved budgets.
📍 Data displays
Training the Nurse
From calling to professionCurricula, uniforms and exams turned care into a career with standards and status.
📍 Education section
Inspire your Friends
- Nightingale’s pet owl, ‘Athena’, travelled in her pocket as a student—its tiny taxidermy is on display.
- Her polar area ‘coxcomb’ chart is among the first high-impact public-health infographics, used to push sanitation funding through Whitehall.
- Day tickets are typically valid for 12 months—a helpful perk if you’re staying nearby or bringing family later.
