Everyone has an interest in health, and visits to London’s museums of health and medicine will reveal the fascinating range and diversity of the subject.

From rare plants, heart surgery, illuminated manuscripts, and helicopter emergency services, to pharmacies, false teeth and Freud, the exhibits in these museums help to place the history and development of medicine and health care in its widest context. Along the way, they provide some remarkable insights into an age-long campaign against illness, disease and injury

Discover for yourself the secrets of the laboratory in which Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928. An in-situ reconstruction of the laboratory, displays and a video uncover the remarkable story of how a chance discovery became a lifesaving drug destined to revolutionise medicine.

A colourful collection of displays and videos retell his discovery. The reconstructed lab is both poignant and hugely authentic, peppered with old-fashioned scientific equipment and furnishings. The museum was opened in 1993 by St Mary’s NHS Trust and is a worthwhile, thought-provoking journey off the beaten track of London’s more customary attractions.