Curator Briony Hudson explains why the hidden stories of historical medical women, as well as famous pioneers, are being revealed in the RCP’s new exhibition 'This vexed question’: 500 years of women in medicine.

Preventative recipes and cures recommended during London’s Great Plague of 1665 were based on plants still grown today in the RCP medicinal garden.

Physician Samuel Garth's satirical poem about an argument between the RCP and the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries was an unlikely 18th-century best-seller.

RCP garden fellow Henry Oakeley takes a look at some of the plants in the RCP medicinal garden that have been, and still are, used in the production of alcoholic drinks.

RCP fellows John Finch and Thomas Baines worked and travelled together in an enduring relationship which lasted for 36 years. Finch was the original owner of the RCP museum's anatomical tables.

This summer three of London’s medical royal colleges have joined together to open their doors to the public.

The Grade I listed Royal College of Physicians (RCP) will be opening its doors to the public on Sunday 18 September 2011 between 11am and 4pm as part of Open House London 2011.

The RCP was founded in 1518, and in our 500th year we’re taking the opportunity to look back on the history of medicine as well as to the future of healthcare.