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Florence Nightingale Museum

1987 establishments in EnglandBiographical museums in LondonFlorence NightingaleHealth in the London Borough of LambethHistory of the London Borough of Lambeth
King's College LondonMedical museums in LondonMuseums established in 1987Museums in the London Borough of LambethNursing museumsUse British English from August 2015Women's museums in the United KingdomWomen in London
Florence Nightingale Museum Joy of Museums
Florence Nightingale Museum Joy of Museums

The Florence Nightingale Museum is located at St Thomas' Hospital, which faces the Palace of Westminster across the River Thames in South Bank, central London, England. It is open to the public seven days a week. It reopened on 12 May 2010 following an extensive £1.4m refurbishment.The museum tells the real story of Florence Nightingale, "the lady with the lamp", from her Victorian childhood to her experiences in the Crimean, through to her years as an ardent campaigner for health reform. Nightingale is recognised as the founder of modern nursing in the United Kingdom. The new museum explains her legacy and also celebrates nursing today: it is a member of The London Museums of Health & Medicine group. In 1860, four years after her famous involvement in the Crimean War, Nightingale founded the Nightingale Training School for nurses at St. Thomas' Hospital and the museum is located on this site.The new museum is designed around three pavilions that tell her story. The Gilded Cage tells the story of Nightingale's privileged childhood and her struggle against stifling social conventions. The Calling shows how Nightingale and her team coped with the crisis in the military hospitals where the legend of the lady with the lamp was born. Reform and Inspire shows the other side of Nightingale, the reformer who campaigned tirelessly for health reform at home and abroad. Highlights from the Collection include the writing slate Nightingale used as a child, her pet owl Athena (which she rescued in Athens and hand reared, and which became her constant companion, travelling everywhere in her pocket), and Nightingale's medicine chest, which she took with her to the Crimean. It contains a mix of medicines and herbal remedies, from bicarbonate of soda to powdered rhubarb. The museum displays a rare Register of Nurses that lists women who served under Nightingale in the military hospitals in Turkey and the Crimean. Audio tours are free with entry and accessed via a set of stethoscopes. Interactive exhibits have been created to offer different ways of exploring Florence's story and influence. Free creative activities for children are offered during the holidays. There is also a resource centre which is open by appointment to students, academics and other researchers, who may use the museum's collections, books and documents related to Florence Nightingale. The museum is a member of the London Museums of Health & Medicine.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Florence Nightingale Museum (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Florence Nightingale Museum
Westminster Bridge Road, London Lambeth (London Borough of Lambeth)

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N 51.500277777778 ° E -0.1175 °
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Gassiot House

Westminster Bridge Road
SE1 7PD London, Lambeth (London Borough of Lambeth)
England, United Kingdom
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Florence Nightingale Museum Joy of Museums
Florence Nightingale Museum Joy of Museums
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Revolving Torsion
Revolving Torsion

Revolving Torsion is a 1972–73 kinetic sculpture and fountain by the Russian-born Constructivist artist Naum Gabo. It was commissioned for the Tate Gallery and has been on long-term loan to the Guy's and St Thomas' Charity for display at St Thomas' Hospital in Lambeth, London, since 1975. It was designated a Grade II*-listed building in January 2016. The sculpture is the culmination of an idea that Gabo developed from the mid-1920s, to implement the ideas published in his 1920 Realistic Manifesto. He made a series of models and maquettes over the years, including his work of c. 1929 Model for "Torsion", a small 10 centimetres (3.9 in)-high Perspex model; his larger work Torsion from 1929–37, a 35 centimetres (14 in)-high model also in Perspex; and his 1960–64 Torsion (Project for a Fountain), an 80 centimetres (31 in)-high bronze maquette. A commission was suggested by Sir Norman Reid, director of the Tate Gallery, when he saw the models on a visit to Gabo's studio in the United States in 1968. Gabo sent his maquette to London and the full-size sculpture was constructed of several stainless steel plates, creating a stack of intersecting curves, deliberately unadorned and without colour. The sculpture was manufactured in 1972–73 by Stainless Metalcraft Limited of London, paid for by Alistair McAlpine, and then donated to the Tate Gallery. Gabo donated his bronze maquette to the Tate Gallery in 1969, and then donated two plastic models in 1977. The work was installed in 1975 in the centre of a circular pool of water in a square garden at St Thomas' Hospital, with the River Thames to the west and Westminster Bridge Road to the north, and new hospital buildings to the east and south. It is a working fountain, with water emitted in streams from some of the sculpture's curved edges. It was originally designed to rotate slowly, once every 10 minutes, but the mechanism has not worked for several years.