Wellcome Collection

It was founded by Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome who was a pharmaceutical entrepreneur and an avid collector of objects relating to medical progress.

Wellcome’s company was the first to introduce medicine in tablet form to England and it was one of the four large pharmaceutical companies to merge to form GlaxoSmithKline. The Wellcome Trust, which the Wellcome Collection is part of, is one of the largest biomedical charities in the world and it has made significant inroads into Cancer and Ebola research.

What to see at the Wellcome Collection

The museum is comprised of both permanent exhibits and a programme of temporary exhibitions.

The Being Human exhibit is the main focus of the Wellcome Collection’s permanent exhibition space now that the long-running Medicine Man exhibit closed in late November 2022. Other permanent displays include a 1950 painting by Pablo Picasso in the reception area.

Being Human

Being Human is a new permanent exhibition that uses around 50 artworks and artefacts to explore what it means to be human. The gallery represents important issues regarding health and human identity in an original manner that is seldom seen in other medical museums.

Temporary exhibitions at the Wellcome Collection

The main exhibition space at the Wellcome Collection has a programme of temporary exhibitions. Temporary installations include:

1880 THAT: Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader
This exhibition (until 16 November 2025) explores sign language, communication rights and the impact of the 1880 Milan Conference on Deaf education. It includes new and recent work by Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader. The artists reflect on the consequences of prioritising speech over sign language. Humour and sculpture are used to explore language, identity and access. British Sign Language interpretation is included throughout, with Deaf-led and interpreted tours planned during the run.

Thirst: In Search of Freshwater
This exhibition (26 June 2025–1 February 2026) explores global relationships with freshwater, a limited and vital resource. It features 125 objects, including artworks, historical items and research material. Case studies span ancient Mesopotamia to modern Singapore. Themes include drought, rain, glaciers, rivers and groundwater. The display addresses environmental challenges and community-led solutions. New commissions and bio-regenerative exhibition materials aim to reconsider how museums approach temporary displays and sustainability without compromising conservation requirements.

Visiting the Wellcome Collection

The Wellcome Collection is on Euston Road across from Euston railway station. It is right next door to Euston Square tube station (Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines) and just a four-minute walk to Euston tube station (Northern and Victoria lines). It is well worth a visit if you have some time to kill before catching a train from Euston.

Admission to the museum is free of charge, even to temporary exhibitions.

The Wellcome Collection runs a programme of free half-hour guided tours that operate Tuesday–Sunday at 11.30am, 2.30pm and 3.30pm.

The busiest times to visit are on weekends when there are sometimes queues for temporary exhibitions and Thursday evenings (when it is open later than usual) can also get busy. The opening and closing weekends of temporary exhibitions are the busiest of all and at these times, timed tickets are given out to control visitor numbers.

The Collection has a gift shop and two cafes. The Wellcome Cafe, is popular with people who work nearby and it often gets busy around lunchtime but the Wellcome Kitchen on level two is usually a quieter spot for something to eat. There are also plenty of other places to eat and drink nearby.

For a specialist museum, there is quite a lot to see here and you should allow 2–3 hours for your visit.

Nearby attractions include the Grant Museum of Zoology, Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology and the British Library, which are all less than a 10-minute walk from here. The British Museum, the Foundling Museum and Fitzrovia Chapel are not much farther away.

If you enjoyed the Wellcome Collection, you may also want to visit the Florence Nightingale Museum, the Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum, the Royal London Hospital Museum and the Old Operating Theatre in London and the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds.