The Victorian Pharmacy...

Image: Wellcome Library blog

With a growing obsession about medical history, I’m really looking forward to the first airing of the historical-observational documentary series Victorian Pharmacy tomorrow (BBC Two, 9pm). Historian Ruth Goodman, Professor Nick Barber and PhD student Tom Quick are recreating an authentic 19th-century pharmacy and the series kicks off with a look at the world of pills and potions at the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign in 1837. Bring on the leeches…

Preserving the past...

Preserving the past? A bottle of embalming fluid from the Coffin Works collection. Photograph by Tim Ellis – see more of his work here.

In trawling the interwebs t’other day, I happened to chance upon the sad story of the withdrawl of funding from a proposed project to transform a Victorian coffin works by the name of Newman Brothers in the centre of Birmingham into a delightfully macabre museum. Not only would I have crawled across broken glass on my hands and knees to snaffle a job there, this really would have made a unique and unusual attraction. More importantly however, it leaves the factory building on the EH ‘Heritage at Risk’ register and a curious collection without a home. The entire debacle makes for an interesting read and if you feel as miffed as I do then make your voice heard here…