Wellcome Collection
Free, lively and reflective: part gallery, part ideas lab on Euston Road. The permanent displays mix medicine’s past with present debates—bodies, minds, contagion, care—while temporary shows fold in contemporary art and global perspectives. The Reading Room blurs library and exhibition; events and talks keep questions open. It’s accessible, family-tolerant and genuinely cross-disciplinary. Plan 60–90 minutes, longer with a talk or the library.
Opening Hours
What's not to miss inside?
Being Human (core gallery)
Medicine meets everyday lifeProsthetics, genomes, mental health and activism share space—science framed by lived experience.
📍 Level 2
The Reading Room
Hybrid of library, lounge and exhibitBooks, objects and comfy corners invite browsing, not marching from case to case.
📍 Upper floors
Current Exhibition
Rotate often; argue generouslyFrom water justice to disability arts, shows pair research with artists’ voices.
📍 Main galleries off the foyer
Cafe & Bookshop
Digest with tea and a good readOne of London’s best science-and-society book selections lives here.
📍 Ground floor
Inspire your Friends
- Henry Wellcome amassed more than a million objects, funding digs and dealers worldwide—his collection seeded both the museum and the research library.
- The Wellcome Trust, created from his pharmaceutical fortune, is now among the world’s largest charitable funders of science and health.
- Some historic displays have been rethought or retired in recent years to address colonial narratives and ethics—an ongoing curatorial choice, not a one-off gesture.
