I went on a tour of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine as part of Open House London. This was one of my I’m in the area so let’s see what it’s about picks and it turned out to be very interesting. The School was founded in 1899 and based elsewhere but their present home dates from 1926, officially opened in 1929.
It’s one of the first ever steel framed buildings with Portland stone facade and designed in the shape of a capital A. The front has an impressive sculpture of Apollo and Artemis riding a chariot, which is also the School’s logo and the first floor balconies are decorated with bronze insects and animals that transmit disease. The frieze around the building lists the names of pioneers in public health and tropical medicine (all men at the moment though there were plans in place for that to change when I visited).
The other architectural highlight was the Art Deco Library with original lighting.
The tour also gave a brief history of the school and the work they do researching and combating infectious diseases such as the recent Ebola outbreaks, and of course now COVID-19. You can find a lot more info about this at their website above.
This was definitely one of those places that I’d never have thought to look into if it wasn’t for Open House London which is what makes it such a great event. You can find more photos here.
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