St Bartholomew's Hospital museum
St Bartholomew's Hospital Museum tells the story of nine centuries of healthcare at the edge of the City of London. The Museum is currently closed for the duration of building works to the North Wing, for the safety and security of visitors and collections. Works to the historic North Wing are taking place as part of the part of the Restoring Historic Barts project led by Barts Heritage. Objects and records from our collections, including those formerly on display, are accessible for research at Barts Health NHS Trust Archives. You can search our catalogue online to identify objects of interest and contact us to make an appointment. Find out more about booking appointments here.
We hope to reopen the museum to visitors in 2025. Works to update and improve the museum are expected to take place in the second phase of works, following completion of the most essential restoration works to the exterior and the main public spaces of the building during this first phase of the project. For more information about the Restoring and Sharing Historic Barts programmes, please see the Barts Heritage website.
Please note, St Bartholomew's Hospital Museum does not hold specimens. Barts Pathology Museum, also on the hospital site, is part of Barts and The London Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, and is not normally open to the public.
Postcards and publications for sale
Although the museum is currently closed, a selection of books, postcards and other items may be purchased by mail order. Please see our Publications for sale list 2022-23 [pdf] for details. To order any of these items, please email us.
Support St Bartholomew's Hospital Museum
Although the museum is currently closed, Barts Health NHS Trust Archives continues to work to preserve and make available our historic collections. Please consider supporting our work - click here to donate.
Downloadable KS2 learning resources
Our KS2 learning resources, based on the history of St Bartholomew’s Hospital and some of the fascinating items from our collections, are FREE to download. The resource pack is designed to introduce children to the story of the hospital’s nine century history of healthcare – it is not necessary to visit the museum to use it. The pack supports cross-curricular learning, linking to English, Maths, Science and PSHE as well as History.
The resources consist of a Discovery sheet, highlighting facts and themes from the hospital’s story, and three Activity sheets. There is also an answer sheet providing sample answers to the Activity questions. The resources can be used in the classroom or for home-based learning. We would like to thank the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths for their generous support for the development of the resource pack.
Please use the links below to download the pack:
Nine centuries of healthcare - Discovery Sheet 1MB
Nine centuries of healthcare - Activity Sheet 1 648KB
Nine centuries of healthcare - Activity Sheet 2 743KB
Nine centuries of healthcare - Activity Sheet 3 1MB
Nine centuries of healthcare - Answer Sheet 103KB
Historic Smithfield and Farringdon
The Norman priory church founded by Rahere, now known as St Bartholomew the Great, is only a few minutes walk from the museum, and the hospital church, St Bartholomew the Less, neighbours the North Wing on the hospital site. Both beautiful churches are open to visitors and worshippers.
Guided walks of the local area led by qualified City Guides take place on a weekly basis, exploring the amazing 900-year story of St Bartholomew’s Hospital and its surrounding area as well as some of the other fascinating medical stories of the City. Meeting at the Henry VIII gate outside St Bartholomew’s Hospital the walk will take in the churches of the hospital, its amazing range of architecture ancient and modern and tell stories of body snatchers, heroic and pioneering medics. The walks run on Fridays at 2.00pm and will finish close to Farringdon Station. For more information, and to book, visit Eventbrite.
You can also use the Geotourist app for a self-guided tour of the local area, with the Historic Farringdon walk, part of the Epic England GPS guided walk series. The walk will take you to key sites in this historic neighbourhood, including the Barbican, Smithfield Market, and the Charterhouse, as well as the hospital itself.