14 October 2008

A unique celebration of and guide to London’s medical history will be published on 10 November 2008 by Strange Attractor Press, in association with Wellcome Collection.

‘Medical London’ is the first publication of its kind: a combination of essays, a beautifully and carefully illustrated gazetteer providing hidden insights into the city, and six individual maps for self-guided historical walks.

For 2000 years, health and sickness have had a major impact on London and the lives of its inhabitants. ‘Medical London’ charts the many roles that diseases, treatments and cures have played in the city's sprawling story, and reveals how London, in turn, has shaped the professions and practices of modern medicine.

The guide is stunningly designed and aims to be both entertaining and informative to appeal equally to residents, visitors, historians, curiosity seekers and medical professionals.

Mike Jay, editor of ‘Medical London’, comments: “’Medical London’ explores the idea that the story of London is intimately bound up with the history of diseases and their cures - and, at the same time, that the medical world of today has in many ways been shaped by the evolution of London itself.”

‘Medical London’ comprises three distinct elements:

‘Sick City’: a book of essays covering medicine's many roles in London life. Contagion and sanitation, madness and pleasure, wealth and consumption, empire and immigration - all are explored in this lively and informative tome.

‘Anatomy of the City’: a definitive ‘gazetteer’ of London's medical landscape - its grand monuments and secret corners, its unique museums and hidden hospitals, and the characters and tales that lie behind them.

Six individual maps for self-guided walks: from Daniel Defoe's ‘Plague Year’ wanderings to the druggists of Soho's night haunts; the homeopaths of bohemian Chelsea to the naval surgeons of maritime Greenwich.

Richard Barnett studied medicine in London before becoming a historian. He teaches in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. Editor Mike Jay is the acclaimed author of ‘The Air Loom Gang’, ‘The Unfortunate Colonel Despard’, and the forthcoming ‘The Atmosphere of Heaven’.

Medical London Festival: 18 October 2008

To accompany the publication, Wellcome Collection will host a series of lively events exploring, celebrating and unearthing London’s alluring medical stories. On Saturday 18 October guided walks, live performances, special gallery tours, and a number of events at other venues will take place to complement ‘Medical London’.

Medical London Walking Tours

During the month of October a series of walks will take place throughout the city based on the sites referenced in the publication. The tours will be led by a range of authors, historians and other London figures and will include their personal insights.

Notes to editors

Ordering 'Medical London'
To order a copy of Medical London please visit the Amazon website, or alternatively call in to Blackwells at Wellcome Collection.

For media enquiries only regarding the 'Medical London' publication, please contact:

Mike Findlay
Media Officer (Wellcome Collection)
T 020 7611 8612
E m.findlay@wellcome.ac.uk

Visit the ‘Medical London’ website for more details and exclusive videos.

Medical London will be the subject of Radio Four’s’Book of the Week’ from 1 December to 5 December.

The Wellcome Trust is the largest charity in the UK. It funds innovative biomedical research, in the UK and internationally, spending over £600 million each year to support the brightest scientists with the best ideas. The Wellcome Trust supports public debate about biomedical research and its impact on health and wellbeing.

The Wellcome Trust's former headquarters, the Wellcome Building on London's Euston Road, has been redesigned by Hopkins Architects to become a new £30m public venue. Free to all, Wellcome Collection explores the connections between medicine, life and art in the past, present and future. The building comprises three galleries, a public events space, the Wellcome Library, a café, a bookshop, conference facilities and a members' club.

Strange Attractor Press explores the further reaches of our world though history and ethnography, art and literature, science and magic. As well as 'Medical London' and three volumes of the acclaimed 'Strange Attractor Journal', the Press has published 'The Field Guide', on the art and practice of crop circle making and the forthcoming 'Welcome to Mars: Fantasies of science in the American century', by Ken Hollings.