Florence Nightingale Museum defies fears of survival to reopen from June

Despite fears that it would not survive the last year, the Florence Nightingale Museum in Lambeth has announced it will reopen on the first weekend of each month from June.

A highlight of the open days will be the Museum’s special exhibition, Nightingale in 200 Objects, People & Places.

The exhibition originally opened in March 2020, just 10 days before England entered its first period of lockdown.

Because of this, the exhibition has remained largely unseen.

Created to mark the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth in 2020, it presents 200 items, stories and places that explore the reasons for her international fame and enduring influence.

Objects on display include the famous lamp carried in the Crimean War, the first nursing uniform which was designed by Florence Nightingale and her medicine cabinet.

The exhibition also includes Athena – Florence Nightingale’s bad-tempered owl, now stuffed, which she used to carry around in her pocket.

The museum has also announced a series of walking tours, starting with a special birthday tour, marking the 201st anniversary of her birth.

On May 12, the Museum will lead a tour of her haunts, as well as buildings and neighbourhoods that played a significant part in her story.

Highlights will include the Mayfair home where Florence Nightingale worked, from her bed, to revolutionise nursing, the shops she visited and the places she stayed, worked and wrote.