Florence Nightingale Museum

On Wednesday we set off from Stanmore Station on the Jubilee Line all the way up to Westminster. The weather wasn’t on our side , but we were extremely excited to be getting the underground altogether up to London. As we came out of Westminster Station, we crossed the bridge to see the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben on one side and if when we looked across the river from beneath our rain mac hoods we could also see the London Eye.As we crossed the bridge and the road towards St Thomas’ Hospital, we spotted a large statue which we immediately recognised. It was May Seacole! We gathered round sang our Mary Seacole assembly song and took some photos before venturing into St Thomas’ Hospital to have lunch before we went on to the museum.As we entered the museum we were greeted by a familiar face from the past. It was Florence Nightingale. She told us her rules and requested we wash our hands before entering the museum. As we sat down and listened to her story we found out that she loved cats and actually had60 of them as well as a pet owl called Athena named after Athens in Greece. As we went on a hunt for Florence’s items in the museum we discovered her bedroom, her writing case, her clothes and more as well as getting the opportunity to dress up as soldiers, nurses from today and even some of Florence’s nursing outfits.We have been learning about Florence at school this half term, but we learnt so much more about her life and how she felt during the Crimean War. At the end we compared a modern day nurse’s uniform with a past nurse’s uniform and two children got to dress up. We thanked Florence for all that she had taught us and our visit to her museum and made our way back to Westminster station before catching the tube back to Stanmore Station.

It was a fabulous trip and we loved every minute of it from getting the train to eating our lunch in hospital to meeting Florence!

Miss Wright