It’s Friday night and my day turned out to be nice and chill. A leisurely morning (after an excellent night’s sleep) of relaxing in bed while writing my blog, a trip to a new-to-me museum, a visit to a green space in the sky, a late pub lunch, and plenty of steps in my favorite city. What more could I ask for?

As I said in my last post, I went into today not having any plans, but I did have a couple of ideas. Funnily enough, neither of those ideas panned out. 🙂 After seeing Paranormal Activity yesterday, I was thinking of getting rush tickets to another show for tonight. I had an alert set through the TodayTix app, but wasn’t looking at my phone when they went up, so they were gone by the time I looked. Whoops! My other idea is was to do a Thames walk Felicity had shown me in a blog, but I ultimately realized I’ve done a chunk of it before anyway, so just didn’t think I’d experience much new on it. Who knows though – maybe I’ll do it on a future trip as I’d be happy to do it with others who haven’t walked that area as much (or at all). And to be fair, I did get a good walk in to reach my first destination today anyway.

So what was that destination? A museum, of course! Another place I’ve talked about with Felicity (we’ve shared lots of London and UK ideas over the years!) but never actually been to is the Hunterian Museum, a collection of anatomical specimens (human and otherwise) and medical instruments established in 1799 when the UK government bought the collection of Scottish surgeon John Hunter and presented it to the Royal College of Surgeons. I wonder if part of the reason I never paid it a visit before today is because it was closed for several years (from May 2017 – May 2023), so I got used to it not being an option. I’m glad it has since reopened though as I really enjoyed my time there!

If anatomy and medial stuff doesn’t interest you and/or if you don’t tolerate medical visuals well, this shouldn’t be on your to-visit list as that’s what the whole place is about. I, on the other hand, have always found medical stuff fascinating (I still love ER and am VERY much enjoying its spiritual successor, The Pitt) and even wanted to be a doctor, until college chemistry changed that. It’s amazing what doctors and medical professionals can do now, but seeing what they could do centuries ago and what they’ve been able to preserve in the name of science is really impressive. There’s a good sample of photos below, but again, if medical stuff ain’t your thing, scroll on…faster. 🙂

Heading into the museum, plus a placard inside it that describes what you’ll see.

An assortment of things that caught my eye near the entrance, including a splinted forearm fracture dating from 2500 – 500 BCE, a medical model, and a collection of fake eyes.

A collection of animal specimens, including the brain of an African elephant, the skull and horns of a Cape buffalo, a partially-dissected electric ray, and the skull of a baby elephant.

On the left is a collection of specimens injected with mercury and dye to preserve them for teaching. On the right is a human femur with a large, preserved tumor. It was huge!

These specimens are all of the younger variety, including the uterus and placenta from a mother, a set of jaws from a child (seeing adult teeth under baby teeth like that is always weird to me), and two infant skeletons (they were 6-7 months old at death).

More animal specimens – the far left photo features a cuttlefish and its beak while the other three show reproduction in various animals (from second left to right, bird embryos, partially-dissected female snakes showing eggs inside their bodies, and various crustaceans with eggs attached).

More animal specimens! This time, a dried and preserved heart from a great white shark (with wax injected into the arteries), the stomach of a camel (specially adapted to hold water), and a few monkeys.

On the left is a uterus with a baby at about six months of development. The collection of infants on the right includes a set of quintuplets born in 1786!

An interesting collection of skulls, including one from an elderly person who’d lost all their teeth, an oversized one from someone with hydrocephalus, one covered in lesions from syphilis, and another young one featuring both baby and adult teeth.

The top left photo is from an 18-year-old with tuberculosis and the one below it shows a spine that’s curved both left to right and front to back (the cause is unclear). The larger photo on the right shows ribs with tumors on them.

This random collection includes a human brain, a dried larynx and trachea (same patient), and a child’s legs showing smallpox lesions.

There are SO many specimens to see in this place – large, small, human, animal, healthy, diseased, etc. Many of them are small, so there are lots of cases filled with multiple shelves of them, so don’t forget to crouch down or stand on your toes to see them all. The Hunterian is free and it’s pretty centrally located, so if you’re at all interested in medicine, this one is kind of a no-brainer (if you found that funny, then pun intended).

For my next stop, I decided to visit The Garden at 120, another free-to-access garden on the roof of a building. You may recall that I’ve been to the more well-known garden, Sky Garden, a few times (most recently in 2022), but since I didn’t book ahead for that one (you don’t always have to do that, but it’s recommended and, because it’s free, it certainly fills up), plus I’ve been there before, so I decided on going to its “rival” this time.

I’ve seen various social media posts about it and thought they all said you don’t have to book ahead and I was glad to confirm that’s true, especially since I was already walking there when I confirmed it (their website doesn’t even give you an option to book, unless you’re in a large group). Of course, I could have taken the tube, but it was only a couple of miles, so I decided to get the steps instead. And, as usual, I found a few nice things to photograph along the way.

A couple of views of St. Paul’s – between buildings, near Paternoster Square (which always reminds me of my first trip here with my friend Ruth Ann, back in 2005) and through the trees.

As for my visit to this new-to-me garden, I have to say I was a bit disappointed. Not only is it smaller and lower to the ground (smaller isn’t really a problem, but lower to the ground is as the views aren’t as good), but it’s also not as well-situated for views, which is compounded by the fact that there’s a decent amount of construction going on around it, so I had to look at several cranes and building sites. Also, given the time of year, the garden isn’t exactly blooming right now. All that said though, I still didn’t mind the visit and it would be fun to return in a warmer, sunnier time of year as I think I’d like it more then. As with Sky Garden, there’s also a restaurant here (one level down from the garden), so I’d be up for a (presumably overpriced) meal there someday. If and when I do return, I’m certain you’ll be able to read about it here. 🙂

The sign seen going in and the short line I had to wait in before going up. Much shorter than the Sky Garden line – only had to wait about five minutes!

These photos show more of the space itself. Again, not large and not blooming, but also not crowded, which is a win.

I do think this garden is worth seeing, but especially if you’ve been to Sky Garden, be aware that it’s not as large and doesn’t offer as many good views. I think both those things stand out more because they’re so close to each other, so it’s that much easier to compare them. But hey, free is free, so it’s always nice to find something free to do!

By the time I finished, it was mid-afternoon, I’d walked a lot, and hadn’t had a proper meal yet (I have some snacks in my room, so had indulged in those in the morning), so I was ready for food. Unsurprisingly, I was feeling a pub meal as I knew that would lead to serviceable food and a nice drink, so away I walked. I had found one on the Googles, but when I walked there, it was a little busier than I wanted, plus the menu didn’t look great. Thankfully, there was another one just down the street that did look more promising. It was fairly busy there as well (prime Friday-after-work time, after all), but I quickly found a table and ordered a drink and a chicken, bacon, and leek pie (with chips, of course). Thank you to The Barrowboy & Banker for a nice meal!

Just admiring a couple of London landmarks on my way to the pub.

With no particular evening plans, I made the mile-ish walk to Retro for a nightcap (I mean, it was pretty early for a nightcap, but hey-ho). I expected it to be busy there and it was, but not slammed and I once again found a table quickly, able to rest my feet from another walk. If you’re thinking I walked everywhere today, you’re right! But don’t worry – I decided to catch a bus back to my hotel. It would have been almost as easy to take the tube from Embankment (just a few minutes from Retro), but the bus was even closer, plus I’ve tried to incorporate busses into my London transit more because Google Maps makes it just as easy to take them as it does other public transport.

I’ve now been up a bit too late (it’s nearly 11p now – much later than yesterday’s 8p bedtime!), but I’m hoping I get the same great sleep I did last night. I’ve got some Doctor Who goodness to get up to tomorrow, but more on that later. For now, sleep is calling and I must answer.