Having spotted I have 14 omissions on Londonist's definitive list of Free Museums In London, I thought I'd better visit two of them. And also one they missed, all on a similar medical theme.
You'll find this one just up the road from Moorgate station inside the HQ of the British Red Cross Society, a 7-storey office block formerly occupied by Allied Insurance. It has excellent opening hours because it's a single room just off reception so can be enjoyed by visitors and members of the public at any time. It's also very dimly lit, which is either to protect the contents or because someone had forgotten to turn the light on.
What you're getting is a whistlestop history of an esteemed humanitarian organisation plus a selection of objects that remind us crises can be challenged with compassion. The Red Cross was originally the idea of a Swiss businessman, our national chapter created during a war in 1870 when Britons weren't involved but thought they could help out. The museum displays a battered Red Cross flag waved during that Franco-Prussian conflict, also a small concertina-type lamp from the earlier Crimean War thought to have been used by Florence Nightingale. When battlefields became more dangerous one tactic was to send millions of food parcels, for example in 1915 a Christmas gift box where non-smokers had the pipe, tobacco, cigarettes and lighter switched for acid drops and writing materials. Prisoners of war received Red Cross assistance too, one particularly evocative item on display being a patchwork quilt stitched by women in a Japanese camp to send secret messages to their husbands in a separate hospital. More recently refugees have been a major focus of the Red Cross's work, not to mention disasters closer to home such as the Gloucester floods in 2007, for which reason the museum displays a big blue can of Tesco new potatoes identical to that which graced my kitchen cupboard at the time. The final case displays a range of bandages and ends with hand sanitiser and a disposable blue mask, jarringly familiar but which one day will be a reminder to future generations of the Red Cross's ongoing adaptability.
The museum won't detain you long but there are also archives beyond, also fresh themed displays in reception, also several former themed displays permanently saved online. I left a little humbler than when I entered, and also convinced that a lot more organisations ought to tuck a museum into their foyer because as PR goes it's an easy win.
Royal College of Nursing Library & Museum Location: 20 Cavendish Square, W1G 0RN [map] Open: 10am - 7pm (until 5pm Sat, closed Sun) Admission: free Subtitle: past caring Website:rcn.org.uk/library/Museum-and-Events Time to set aside: 15+ minutes
The RCN exists to support and represent the nursing profession so it makes sense their London HQ would have a library, and this includes an intriguing museum space that's less paraphernalia, more attitudes. Don't aim for the main door on Cavendish Square, head round the side to the entrance shared with the Trampoline café. Be sure to ask carefully at the desk where precisely the exhibits are because they could be round the liftshaft or downstairs in a separate room at the far end of the library or both, and even now I'm not entirely sure.
If I've got this right the museum focuses on temporary themed exhibitions rather than a permanent display, these readily packed up so they can be sent to the RCN's other hubs in Cardiff and Edinburgh. The current theme around the liftshaft is The Art of Nursing (subtitled Creativity, Resistance, Renewal), a lot of which is cardboard placards with heartfelt slogans. I loved the full-size knitted nurses by reception representing all eras and grades from District Nurse to Ward Sister, also the stained glass triptych at the foot of the stairs (although I think that's permanent). The main exhibits aim to shatter the stereotype that nurses are quiet women in prim uniforms, comparing their Ladybird book illustration with radical newsletters, proud portraits and proper photos. Florence Nightingale's pioneering coxcomb diagram confirms that nurses can change policy, not just care for the sick.
I've missed out because the latest concurrent exhibition opens tomorrow but you needn't miss out because all the exhibitions are put online, so here's the current one, here's the last one on prison nursing and here's a prescient one on pandemics from 2018. There's more to nursing than the uniform.
Museum of Anaesthesia Location: 21 Portland Place, W1B 1PY [map] Open: 10am - 4pm (weekdays only) Admission: free Subtitle: won't put you to sleep Website:anaesthetists.org/Home/Heritage-centre Time to set aside: up to 30 minutes
Just up the road from Broadcasting House, and not far from the nurses, is where the Association of Anaesthetists has its home. You have to ring the bell to get in and will then be directed down a thin Georgian staircase to a clinical basement corridor, at the end of which is a small two-bay museum. Implements and accoutrements on the left, full-on face-hugging machines on the right. And it's very well done.
The application of anaesthesia took root in 1846 when an American dentist offered ether rather than hypnotism for a tooth extraction. This ended badly because he fluffed the dosage, but the process snowballed globally within a couple of years and soon operations became something you survived, or at least failed to notice the pain. Some of the early equipment is rather intrusive - how best to keep an airway open? - also very varied as several analgesic agents were introduced. But the profession became inexorably better at keeping their patients alive as well as unconscious, so as you work round the cabinets the gizmos get more technical, more reliable and more adaptable to different medical situations. It's not every museum that has drawers labelled Needles, Syringes, Masks and Harnesses, or indeed advice on how best to apply ketamine. The larger machines are displayed in a manner that resembles an overactive operating theatre, and include a valve-pumped device called a Pulmoflator and an electronic emergency ventilator rushed out to service the start of the Covid pandemic. If you were put under during your early life, maybe that Boyles Machine did the donkey work.
I don't think I'd recommend a visit if you're about to go in for surgery, if only because what you'll see here isn't what the NHS now uses. But I came away reassured that the risks are low, the profession is very skilled and the fundamentals have been much refined over the years. The ideal anaesthetic hasn't yet been discovered (fast onset, quickly reversible, no side effects) but we're getting closer, and one day hopefully that knockout discovery will be made.
The website medicalmuseums.org has details of 28 London Museums of Health and Medicine, so if today's trio haven't inspired you hopefully the others will.
Sometimes you just want to go for a nice walk, nothing too taxing, well-connected, municipal-focused, mixed heritage, watery promenades, sculptural interludes, optimistically postwar, retail opportunities, refreshment-adjacent, a bit of a stroll, won't take long. So here's an upbeat loop round the new town of Hemel Hempstead, nowhere near enough to make a day of it but a nice walk all the same. [map][14 photos]
n.b. Imagine a three-petalled flower, or perhaps a wind turbine. That's the shape of the Hemel Green Walk - three approximately equal loops spreading out from the central roundabout.
n.b. The full Hemel Green Walk is 7½ miles long but I'm only doing the northern loop hence just 2½ miles.
n.b. The other loops head out of town to the station and towards Apsley Marina, but the canal towpath looked a bit muddy so I stuck to the all-weather section.
n.b. The Hemel Green Walk is supposed to be available as a lovely-looking fold-out map, but I went to the library as directed and they didn't have a copy, indeed hadn't heard of it. To their credit they looked in several drawers and cupboards but had no luck so I had to make do with a pdf.
Let's start at the Magic Roundabout, Hemel Hempstead's iconic central gyratory. It's six mini roundabouts in one, a big loop that can be orbited clockwise or anti-clockwise with the River Gade flowing straight through the middle. It was constructed in 1973 and many drivers love it, although it's fair to say my Mum wasn't a fan. Alongside used to be the HQ of Kodak, the camera people, who moved into a concretetower in 1970 and moved out in 2006 after film processing faded away. I thought they'd replaced the offices with new flats but apparently they just reclad the exterior and added some extra blocks. An anthropomorphic sculpture in the central plaza has been stacked imaginatively from three reels of film... but we're not going that way, we're heading into town.
Hemel Hempstead was designated a new town in 1947, four weeks after Crawley and six weeks before Harlow.
The sinuous office block that once crossed the main road was replaced in 2005 by a chunky shopping district called Riverside. The anchor tenant was a huge Debenhams which with hindsight was a terrible choice, the largest building now a vacuous shell, since doubled down by the emptying of Top Shop/Top Man opposite. Enough lingers elsewhere that Hemel remains a proper retail draw, mainly thanks to Marlowes, the new town's original postwar precinct. It wasn't always pedestrianised but it feels right that it is, a long swoosh of shops with occasional sculptural infill. On the bend by M&S is A Point of Reflection, a mossy dollop resembling a classical urn, and further up is Waterplay, three acrobatic kids on a plinth representing the sporting vigour of Dacorum.
Dacorum is the name of the local authority hereabouts since 1974.
My favourite civic artwork in Hemel is the Tile Mosaic Map on the end of the Hillfield Road car park (said to be Britain's first multi-storey). It shows the town in relation to neighbouring settlements, each with a caricature of what its famous for, so for example Hatfield has Queen Elizabeth I being startled by a jet airliner, Ayot St Lawrence has a very beardy George Bernard Shaw and Whipsnade has a lion parading on an elephant. It's a shame Watford doesn't get a look-in but that's because the canvas is landscape rather than portrait. Nearby is Development of Man, a four-part evolutionary layer cake in Portland stone with 'Man the Town Dweller' as its pinnacle, and which probably looked more imposing before the charity shop underneath moved out.
The mosaic map was created by Rowland Emett, king of postwar kinetic whimsy.
The Green Walk suggests a diversion at this point to go see where a railway no longer is. This was the Harpenden to Hemel Hempstead branch line, a connection to the Midland Main Line which opened in 1877 and never quite reached the West Coast Main line due to railway rivalry. It closed the same year Hemel was designated a new town, a decision which seems ridiculous today, after which the viaduct across the Gade was demolished to make way for fresh development. Thankfully the seven miles from the old station to Harpenden has been retained as a long-distance path called The Nickey Line, which is certainly an ambulatory quest for another day, but not really worth making a special effort to see on a town centre trail.
This is why Hemel Hempstead's current station is a bloody-annoying mile out of town across a muddy moor.
I hadn't walked this far north before so wasn't fully prepared for the fact that Hemel Hempstead has an old town, a long street with buildings 400 years older than the surrounding residential districts. Of course it does, all the early new towns coalesced around an existing urban heart rather than being conjured up across fields. But this is a properly characterful quarter mile, a narrow climb between jutting buildings, irregular shops and pastel-painted cottages, now with one-way traffic to avoid congestion. More than one Tudor coaching inn still plies a trade, the Olde Kings Arms now offering unlimited pasta on Mondays rather than stabling for 36 horses. Hemel was once renowned for its grain market, the Corn Exchange long since absorbed into the (Old) Town Hall but still with an echoingly evocative pillared undercroft. It's fair to say I was pleasantly surprised.
Henry VIII may actually have stayed at the Olde Kings Arms before it was called that.
Historically Hemel's pride and joy is St Mary's, a notable Norman church on a proven Saxon site. It has flint and Hertfordshire puddingstone in its walls, a slew of stained glass inside and is unmissable on the skyline due to its 200 foot octagonal spire. According to a plaque the spire is 'one of the tallest in Europe', a claim I find hard to match to actual data, although I am willing to believe it was maximal in the 14th century and that it's still the tallest lead-clad timber spire in England. For a good view of the full vertical extent head to neighbouring Charter Gardens, soon to be a riot once the bulbs burst forth, where the gatehouse tower of a Cromwellian knight's manor house still stands.
Henry VIII probably didn't stay at the manor on the night he signed the town's market charter, whatever myth says.
It's now time to head back south again, this time following the river rather than the main streets. When the new town centre was being created the planners realised the Gade would make an excellent recreational spine so left a linear park down one side for recreational purposes. It's a tad more natural at the northern end, this where the splash park, bowls club and general kickabout space can be found. But as the river flows closer to the shops it's been cajoled into a straighter ornamental form, creating a very pleasant and unexpectedly lengthy promenade space called the Water Gardens. This includes gentle weirs, majestic willows and the occasional duck-infested island, with the Gade crossed at regular intervals by a very 1950s-style of low arched footbridge.
The Water Gardens replaced several watercress beds, West Herts once being prime cress-growing territory.
Hemel Hempstead's chief architect was Geoffrey Jellicoe, his original vision being "not a city in a garden, but a city in a park." His signature design is perhaps best seen in these riverside spaces, especially the Flower Garden with its shrubbery arches and geometric walkways, although it's currently too early in the year for the full burst of colour so oddly unphotogenic. The Water Gardens end with a bulbous lake, its shape intended by Jellicoe to resemble the head of a serpent although I doubt most residents have ever spotted the symbolism. Here we find the last of the walk's civic sculptures, a pair of bronze dancers jiving on the surface of the water (title Rock'n'Roll, artist Hubert Yencesse, year 1962). Ahead lies the Riverside shopping centre again, then the six-fold roundabout and that means we're done.
I certainly saw a new side to the new town on this walk, and perhaps you'd enjoy a trip to Hemel Hempstead too.
Sun 1: I sat opposite a scruffy homeless bloke on the District line. "Oh he's asleep." "Oh his fly is open." "Oh is that his...?" "Oh god it is!" "Oh he's shifted slightly." "Oh god it's sticking out more." "I should probably alert a member of staff."
Mon 2: The former Nestlé factory by Hayes and Harlington station is now Hayes Village. The hoardings include the disclaimer 'Photography is indicative only', so if you look beyond you can see it's just the usual stackyflats and nobody is enjoying baguettes and quiche on a stripy picnic blanket. Tue 3: A new borough-specific news portal has launched in East London, the Barking and Dagenham Star, from the team that already bring you Newham Voices, Waltham Forest Echo, Enfield Dispatch, Haringey Community Press and Barnet Post. If you live locally it might be worth keeping tabs on.
Wed 4: Took BestMate for a walk from Kilburn to Hampstead. Near the end we passed through the Branch Hill estate, three Modernist stepped terraces designed by Benson and Forsyth for Camden council, which on completion in 1978 were "the most expensive council houses in England". We may have walked up and down SpedanClose longer than was strictly necessary, sorry. Thu 5: I heard voices through the wall in my kitchen! I have never heard voices through the wall in my kitchen in 25 years of living here. I wondered what the hell my neighbours were up to. My best guess is that there was a workman in one of their cupboards. Fri 6: Ended up in Wimpy after another walk and they upsold me an egg, sausage and bacon muffin without the egg, which is odd because I can't find that particular item on the menu. Cafe breakfasts are a right pain when you don't like eggs.
Sat 7:Streetmap came back after four weeks offline, phew. The reason for its disappearance was that it's based in Cornwall and "Storm Goretti took out our power and internet connectivity". When connectivity was finally restored all the advertising that supports the site was borked and they thought they'd have to shut down permanently, but a crowdfunder has since raised a year's running costs so all is well again, hurrah. Sun 8: Idea for clickbait article: Is this the only London bus route regularly held up by geese on the road? Mon 9: Ooh, a zebra crossing has appeared outside Bow Tesco, so after 25 years I can finally cross safely without forever looking out for supermarket car park traffic. Thanks Ian!
Tue 10: Citing the Online Safety Act, Flickr requested I verify my age via some American app thing. I emailed and said I joined Flickr 20 years ago thus must be over 18, QED. They said they're not allowed to accept that as evidence. The law is mad. Wed 11: I happened to be on the Crossrail platform at Whitechapel as the weekly Fire Alarm test took place. They announced in advance it was a test. However a train then arrived and the doors opened just as the platform lights brightened and the scary message was broadcast. Passengers looked somewhat uncomfortable. The train doors then closed before the announcement that the Fire Alarm test was over. They really ought to be able to time this better. Thu 12: I wonder if this annoys you as much as it annoys me.
Fri 13: Today is the first of three Friday 13ths this year, a total which hasn't happened since 2015 and won't happen again until 2037. Sat 14: I'm reading the new Mick Herron Slough House novel, Clown Town, which is the usual rug-pulling tour de force. Stayed on the train past my intended stop because I still had 2 pages to finish... oh I see, he's just leaving us hanging then. Sun 15: I said I wasn't going to carry on doing this. But I really will stop now.
Enf
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Mon 16: You can tell TfL are concerned about their old DLR trains becoming life-expired before the new trains are ready because they're cutting all Bank-Lewisham services from three cars to two for just one week during half term. Expect more of this. Tue 17: If you're a provincial bus user you might appreciate busatlas.uk, a website with 28 pdf maps showing principal inter-urban bus routes across most of England and Wales. The project started in 2019 and maps are incrementally added and revised. Here are Somerset and the Midlands, for example.
Wed 18:Hackney council have just introduced a traffic filter on Amhurst Road outside Hackney Central station. It's operational 7am-7pm daily and only buses, cyclists, permit holders, emergency services and bin lorries can pass through. As a user of public transport I should be all for it, but in this case all I can think is how circuitous the detours are and how congested they're going to get. Thu 19: I spotted this exceptionally Essex car in Gants Hill, which is not in Essex.
Fri 20: The latest selection of ridiculously over-optimistic tourist leaflets in my local Tesco includes a glossy Visit Liverpool brochure and a 32-page booklet listing what's on at the Princes Theatre in Clacton. Nobody in E3 is planning on heading there, even if Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is really good. Sat 21: The redevelopment of Stroudley Walk, E3, has reached the 'dozens of mature trees arrive by lorry' stage. This is to create a 'vibrant public pocket park'. I just wish they'd hurry up and reopen everything because through access has been blocked for the last four years and it's a right pain locally.
Sun 22: My new debit card is portrait rather than landscape. Also the 16-digit number's on the back and is no longer embossed. I should be grateful they haven't hidden the numbers yet. Mon 23: I got an email reminder to renew my Senior Railcard, and maybe that has finally made me feel old. Tue 24: I'm looking to buy an air fryer and have my eye on one that's £40 off. But not today, I'll go to Argos tomorrow. Wed 25: Oh for goodness sake, the price of the air fryer has increased by £50 overnight. Stuff that then.
Thu 26: After four episodes at the Bridge Cafe in Acton, The Apprentice's defeated candidates have finally been sent to Sandy's Cafe again. It appeared in the previous series as Lisa's Cafe but was rebranded in January last year. You'll find it on Hercies Road just round the corner from Hillingdon station. I still haven't been in for a cuppa. Fri 27: The thing about the Gorton and Denton by-election is that it's now obvious who was going to win but it wasn't obvious beforehand. Expect the same unpredicatble tactical voting in hundreds of constituencies in the next election, delivering who knows what. Sat 28: Londonist has updated its excellent list of 74 free London museums, should you ever need inspiration for a cheap cultural day out. I've only been to 60 of them... so far.
Also Wed 25: Bugger, not again. Also Thu 26: My hyacinth is still leaning. Also Fri 27: The magnolias are in bloom in Old Malden, in February. Also Sat 28: The fifth 1st class letter in the Royal Mail Experiment finally arrived, one whole week late.
One thing I count every February is how many trains I travel on. But I was tallying something extra this year - the name of the train operator. And so I can confirm, somewhat excitedly, LAST MONTH I TRAVELLED WITH EVERY TRAIN OPERATOR IN LONDON.
This includes TfL, GWR, c2c and all the others that operate journeys in the capital.
I have not included operators that only operate outside London.
❌ CrossCountry, Merseyrail, Northern, ScotRail, Island line, Transpennine Express, TfW, West Midlands Railway
And I have not included operators that serve only one London station, it had to be possible to make a journey inside Greater London.
❌ Avanti West Coast, Caledonian Sleeper, EMR, Eurostar, Gatwick Express, Grand Central, Hull Trains, LNER, Lumo
This leaves 15, depending on your definition of train operator.
✅ c2c, Chiltern, Elizabeth line, Greater Anglia, Great Northern, GWR, Heathrow Express, London Overground, LNWR, Southeastern, Southern, Stansted Express, SWR, TfL, Thameslink
Note: Technically the Overground operator is Arriva Rail London. Note: Technically Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern and Thameslink are all part of 'Govia Thameslink Railway'. Note: Technically the Stansted Express is part of Greater Anglia. Note: Technically the government is the operator for c2c, Greater Anglia, LNWR, Southeastern and SWR but I treated them all as separate.
Some of these 15 operators are easy and some are hard. Here are the harder ones.
• The Heathrow Express only runs from London to Heathrow and is a rip-off. However it's free to ride the Heathrow Express between Heathrow terminals so that's what I did.
• The only LNWR journey within London is between Euston and Harrow & Wealdstone.
• The only Stansted Express service within London is between Liverpool Street and Tottenham Hale.
• GWR's only service between London stations is the Greenford shuttle (other than a few Crossrail stand-ins in the middle of the night).
• Chiltern have only nine stations in London, that's Marylebone, Harrow-on-the-Hill and seven stations up the line to South Ruislip, generally only served once an hour.
The rest are easy.
Two-thirds of my journeys last month were on TfL services (tube 124, DLR 25, tram 5).
I also made 23 Crossrail journeys and 16 Overground journeys.
Of the remaining 44 rail journeys, almost half were with just two operators (Southeastern 11, SWR 9).
For completeness sake I also rode on every Overground line and every tube line.
If I were a YouTuber I'd probably try to do them all in one day as part of a video called I HAVE BEEN ON EVERY TRAIN OPERATOR IN LONDON. But I'm not, and it would be quite dull. All of them in a month is quite enough.
I wonder how many other people have done them all in a year, let alone a month.
20 things we learnt from TfL FoI requests in February 2026
1) The assignment of stations to zones was implemented some 30 years ago, broadly fitting six concentric zones within the geography of London. Very few changes have since been made - generally only in very specific circumstances where any adverse revenue impacts could be mitigated. 2) There is no track-mounted rail running edge lubrication on the DLR. Lubrication of the running rail gauge corner/wheel flange interface is presently through dry lubrication sticks mounted on the B92/B2007 vehicles which contact the wheel flanges. However the new B23 trains are fitted with liquid flange lubrication. 3) TfL spent £8,439,102 on advertising costs in 2025, down from £8,609,454 in 2024. 4) In winter 2023/4 TfL gritted or salted 40,681 km of roads across 38 days, rising to 46,796 km across 48 days in winter 2024/5. The winter season does not officially end until April. 5) The full list of curtailment points on bus route 16 is Paddington, Edgware Road Station, Kilburn High Road Station, Kilburn Quex Road, Cricklewood Broadway, Cricklewood Bus Garage, Neasden Shopping Parade and Brent Park Superstores.
6) There are 6455 traffic signal sites in London, of which 245 have cameras that are able to enforce red light offences. 7) In 2024 there were 5 complaints about grafitti/vandalism/litter on the Central line, rising to 159 complaints in 2025. On the Bakerloo line the corresponding increase was from 3 to 77. 8) Last year step-free access was unavailable at Wimbledon Park station due to unavailability of staff on 245 separate occasions. 9) Route 309 was rerouted on the Aberfeldy Estate in August 2024. The promised additional stop has not materialised because the necessary submission from the borough team has only just entered the design review process. The location has been unsuitable for a temporary stop due to the presence of traffic, street furniture, guardrails, trees and bushes. 10) 86,305 passengers boarded route 25 at Bus Stop M last year, slightly more than the 85,818 passengers who boarded route 8. I'm thrilled to be able to bring you this pie chart of 2025 boardings at Bus Stop M. The tiny vertical sliver is for night routes N25 and N205.
11) Of all the miles cycled by cyclists across England, 22% are in London. 12) In April 2025 barriers were added to platform 4 at Ealing Broadway to prevent passengers running from the stairs to carriage 7 of Elizabeth line trains. This had previously been the location with the most accidents, generally caused by people running and then misjudging the step between the train and the platform. The barriers also encourage passengers to move further along the platform, reducing overcrowding. This is intended to be a temporary measure whilst longer-term solutions are investigated. 13) Buses on route 145 no longer serve Dagenham Dock station because Messina Way has been blocked while the owner of the road pressures the local authority to adopt the road, and there is no feasible alternative route. 14) TfL maintain a database of 20332 bus stop names and locations at tfl.gov.uk/bus-stops.csv 15) If the first cap-based journey of the day is made off-peak and a following journey is made at peak time, the off-peak daily travel cap applies.
16) The youngest person employed as an Underground train operator is 23 years of age. 17) Police Officers, Traffic Wardens, London Safety Camera Partnership officers and Civil Enforcement Officers are exempt from red route restrictions while undertaking legitimate enforcement activity. 18) During the last twelve months there have been 47 occasions on which pigeons have been culled at TfL stations or depots. 70% of culls involved the shooting of fewer than 5 pigeons. The highest number killed in one cull was 16. 19) About 800 people per day transfer between Bethnal Green (Overground) and Whitechapel stations, although this is not an OSI so they get charged for two journeys. 20) TfL's service vehicle fleet currently includes 523 Fords, 185 Volkswagens, 158 Renaults, 15 Volvos, 13 Mercedes, 6 Dafs, 3 Mitsubishis, 2 Isuzus, 2 Nissans, 1 Citroen and 1 Grove Coles All Terrain Hydraulic Crane.
St David's Day quiz
