Ancient college… modernist building

The RCP celebrates the 50th anniversary of its building with an exhibition, The anatomy of a building: Denys Lasdun and the Royal College of Physicians.

The RCP’s building is remarkable in many ways. It boasts one of central London’s most enviable locations, bustles with activities fundamental to improving our health and is a modernist masterpiece, managing to look both formidable and elegant. The building also succeeds in squeezing nearly 500 years of medical history into London’s finest Grade I listed modernist building. In the words of Sir Denys Lasdun, the building's architect, it is ‘modern monastic’.

In 2014 we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of this magnificent building with a major exhibition, The anatomy of a building: Denys Lasdun and the Royal College of Physicians. 2014 is also the centenary of Sir Lasdun’s birth, so alongside rarely-seen architectural models and construction photographs, the exhibition will explore his life and other work, which include the extraordinary Royal National Theatre on London’s South Bank

RCP building

Come along and find out how Lasdun designed a prestigious building that ‘can be altered, adapted and extended through a century of occupation’, but at the same time be a shelter for a ‘clobber of ancestral memories’.

In addition to the exhibition, we will be running an exciting programme of events, including architecture tours, lectures and other special events.

Sarah Backhouse

Exhibition coordinator

The exhibition, The anatomy of a building: Denys Lasdun and the Royal College of Physiciansran from 8 September 2014 – 13 February 2015

Read more about the RCP's library, archive, and museum on our blog, and follow @RCPmuseum on Twitter.

Date
by
Sarah Backhouse ,
Exhibitions officer

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Library, Archive and Museum