Florence Nightingale Museum to reopen on International Nurses’ Day
The director of the Florence Nightingale Museum has said fighting to reopen after the pandemic has been an “emotional roller-coaster”.
The London museum celebrating the most famous figure in nursing history will open again on May 12.
David Green said it has been a “long and tiring time” fighting to save the legacy of Florence Nightingale, who became known during the Crimean War as The Lady With The Lamp, because she would check on British soldiers throughout the night.
He told the PA news agency: “It has been a real emotional roller-coaster.
“Certainly for me, I’ve never worked so hard in my life, especially those first few weeks after we closed, it was just so strange.
“We had to accept the fact that ultimately, as a central London location very reliant on international tourists, that market had collapsed.
“Then the real work kicked in with the fundraising to keep the place going, even with grant applications, they’re hard work, you’ve got no guarantee of success.
“I think we’ve got a real sense of achievement that we’ve pulled it out of the bag, we’ve managed to keep it going.
“We’ve been closed a while but I’m pleased to say that we’ve fought back and May 12 we go again.”
“We want to give it a go and on Florence’s 202nd birthday, what better time to do it.
“It is celebrated throughout the world as international nurses day so literally every country in the world will be honouring their nurses on that day.
“We thought it would be a great opportunity to actually celebrate nursing by getting the museum open again, which nicely it fits in with the tourist calendar,” Mr Green added.
The Florence Nightingale Museum, an independent charity, had begun to celebrate the 200th anniversary of her birth when the pandemic hit in March 2020.
Celebrations of the bicentenary, which had been years in the making, had to be scrapped but will now resume, including the Nightingale In 200 Objects, People And Place exhibition.
Mr Green said: “At the time of the forced closure, we were at our busiest, in the early stages of bicentenary celebrations.
“We are now on a surer footing and absolutely delighted to open our doors again, hopefully for good this time.”
Among new features of the museum will be a celebration of Nightingale’s legacy in statistics, featuring Sir David Spiegelhalter, and her certificate into the Statistical Society of London marking its first female member in 1858.