London: Dec 4: Wellcome Collection (again)

On Saturday, December 4, 2010, I had a slow-moving museum day, over which I took half a dozen pictures. I spent an hour in the British Library exploring its special exhibit on English (see the previous day's entry for details), then met Di Yin and one of her relatively new but close friends for lunch, M, who, like Di Yin, also works at the British Library. After lunch, I spent another hour and change at the special exhibit, then headed to the Wellcome Collection for its special exhibit. I'd previously visited the Wellcome Collection, a museum about medicine and the culture surrounding it, but the special exhibit wasn't open yet.

For lunch, Di Yin and M led me to Drummond Street, a street that's a short walk from the British Library and that's famous for its many Indian restaurants, especially buffets. After some discussion between them, we settled on Raavi Kebab.

Lunch was respectable, though nothing inspired me much. Di Yin was more enthusiastic about the dishes, saying everything was good or very good.

Incidentally, it's amazing how balmy 4 C is when you're used to -2 C. Yes, it was a cold week.

After finishing the British Library after lunch, I walked the short distance to the Wellcome Collection. Its special exhibit on mind-altering drugs (both legal and illegal; the exhibit shows that these lines are poorly drawn and highly culturally relative) was punily named High Society. The exhibit ranged widely (as I expected given the rest of the collection). The exhibit showed lots of documents written by explorers and scientists as they first discovered/saw the effects of the drugs. I learned Sherlock Holmes was originally a cocaine addict! It also showed art about the drug trade and its effects. In addition, the exhibit discussed historical uses of various drugs (mostly about opium, I guess because it had worldwide impact and had lots do with the British empire's ascendancy), and how their use has changed through education, criminalization, and medicalization.

The coolest display (besides the ones shown/described in the pictures) was the one showing how spiderwebs look different depending on which drug you give the spider.

By the way, I noticed the Wellcome Collection's cafe, located in the lobby, was hopping and lively, just as it was last time I visited. I wonder why it's such a hip place to be. The scene--the crowd it attracts--is nothing like the cafes at other museums or the nearby British Library.