RCP Museum Late: Healing words in the RCP Garden

Discover the fascinating worlds of plant medicine and hand-written recipe books with the RCP Garden and Museum teams.

Discover how plants from the RCP Medicinal Garden have been, and in some cases still are, used in medicine with expert Garden fellows. And explore how these plants and other ingredients feature in the unofficial story of medicine shared in the ‘Healing words’ exhibition. 

Healing plants

The garden will be open from 5.45pm to explore throughout the evening and there is the opportunity to join an expert guide for a tour of the Garden every half hour from 5.45pm until 8pm (last tour at 7.15pm).

The RCP Medicinal Garden isn't your typical garden. It is unique in that almost every one of the 1000+ species of plant here has a link to medicine.

The myriad of stories they tell come from diverse cultures, different countries and from every age in recorded history. Many of the plants featured are listed in the recipe books featured in the Healing words exhibition for everything from plague cures to beauty products.

Healing words

Discover more with the exhibition ‘Healing words: The unofficial story of medical practice in England 1500–1800’ featuring almost 30 handwritten books of medical and culinary recipes. The exhibition is open from 5.30pm – 8pm and there will be tours from the archives, heritage library and museum team at 6pm and 7pm on the exhibition gallery.