Florence Nightingale's London: Travelling back 100 years on an audio tour of Mayfair

By Sarah Gordon

Plugged in: Sarah visited prestigious Berkeley Square, Park Lane and Pall Mall during the audio tour


I am not so much The Lady With The Lamp as the Tourist With The iPod as I wander through London's exclusive Mayfair in search of Florence Nightingale.

Yes, I realise the nurse is long gone - 100 years ago today in fact - but a surprising number of links to her life remain dotted among the five-star hotels and boutiques of the Monopoly board's most expensive district - the corner of London where she spent most of her 90 years.

As I plug myself into my audio tour, London opens up in front of me - a life-sized museum of sweeping streets and tree-lined squares that were frequented by one of history's most iconic women.

My guides are a host of narrators and experts, put together on one soundtrack to commemorate the centenary of her death on August 13th.

With little knowledge about the medical worker, beyond her lamp-carrying tendencies and Crimean War participation, I had been unsure what to expect from an hour-long walking tour based entirely around her life.


Florence Nightingale was born in Italy in 1820


But as the sounds of the modern city fade into the background, Florence Nightingale reaches through the centuries to pull me back into Victorian London, a city of glamorous excess for the lucky few and unimaginable hardship for the rest.

Perhaps it is the vivid descriptions of London life - or just the knowledgeable narrator talking me through the route - but the 21st-century hustle I am so familiar with falls away, and London emerges as the tour's real protagonist.

I begin at the spot where her house once stood - on South Street, near the glamorous hotels of modern-day Park Lane.

With a little prompting from the voice in my ear, I glance above eye level to the classic Georgian facades and their Gothic Revival touches, and peer inside shops that have stood little-changed since the progressive Miss Nightingale set foot inside them.

With her affluent family background, Florence - named after the Italian city where she was born in 1820 - was destined for a life of luxury as a society woman mixing in the most elevated circles.

But even in her teens, this well-educated girl felt trapped by her position, and had more of an interest in maths - taught to her by her Cambridge-educated father - than Mayfair life.

Of the monotony of society life she once wrote: 'When night comes, women suffer physically the accumulation of nervous energy which had nothing to do all day and makes them feel every night when they go to bed as if they are going mad.'

Florence realised early on that she wanted to become a nurse, but the idea of a woman of her standing taking a paid job, particularly that of a lowly nurse, was considered preposterous.


Stepping back in history: The grand streets are little-changed since Florence's time


But with the quiet determination that would be so visible throughout her career, Florence tirelessly pursued her interest, and eventually her parents allowed her to take up a place at The Institute for Gentlewomen During Sickness on Harley Street.

As I learn about her early life, I move on to the oasis of green that is Berkeley Square - one of the most sought-after addresses in the country.

Strolling the back streets of Mayfair, there is barely a car to remind me which century I am in, until I reach the bustle of the square.

From there, it is the suave Browns Hotel, and the designer delights of Bond Street and Saville Row, as I move on to Florence's role in the Crimean War.


Florence bought her nosegay - used to keep smells associated with disease at bay - at the perfumery Floris


Moved by the accounts that William Howard Russell, a journalist for The Times, sent back of the horrific conditions endured by injured soldiers, Florence wrote to her friend - and secretary of state at war - Sidney Herbert, to offer her services.

Leaving the comfort of London life behind, Florence and a team of 38 nurses travelled to Scutari in Turkey in 1854, where soldiers injured in the battles with the Russian army, were sent for treatment.

While the women were not, at first, welcomed in the barrack hospital, Florence's unassuming manner hid a quiet resolve which eventually wore the army's doctors down, allowing her to transform the medical facilities.


Hancock's in Burlington Arcade (left) is the only place to supply the Army with the Victoria Cross, while Gieves and Hawkes on Savile Row made its name selling military uniforms


Where once the sick and dying lay in their uniforms 'stiff with gore' and 'covered with vermin', within a month, soldiers were benefiting from better hygiene, a hospital laundry and decent food introduced by the 'ministering angel'.

Word of Florence's efforts reached home, and when she finally returned to her beloved London, the nurse was considered a national treasure.

As I walk towards St James's Square, passing down Savile Row, where Gieves and Hawkes (the tailors who first made their name selling military uniforms) still stands - and on through Burlington Arcade, where Hancock's (the sole jeweller to supply the Victoria Cross to the Army) lurks among the gilded shopfronts, I learn more about the lasting effects Florence's practices had on the nursing profession.

Much of her 'revolutionary' advice at the time is considered common sense now - and her 'always wash your hands' rule is still one of the most important regulations in hospitals.

And as I pass the perfumery where she bought her nosegay to keep bad smells at bay - still trading today - and make my way into peaceful St James's Square, I can't help but feel that her life, plagued by illness after her return from war, was tinged with sadness.

After refusing the offer of marriage and all the social rules in engendered, she lived a solitary existence until her death aged 90. Often considered irritable due to her constant ill health, she dedicated her days to writing books and letters, and researching the medical profession.

It is this tireless work that is so associated with the nurse today, the standards she implemented and the nursing school set up in her name.


'Ministering angel': Florence will forever be remembered as The Lady With The Lamp


But as I stand in front of the Crimean War memorial on Pall Mall, her stone statue rising above me, lamp in hand, I prefer to remember her as that earnest young woman, quietly defying the social norms of her era to carve out her own selfless path.

The words written in The Times in 1855, that so endeared her to the nation, float back to me.

'She is a ministering angel without any exaggeration in these hospitals. And as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her.

'When all the medical officers have retired for the night, and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds.'

Travel FactsThe Florence Nightingale audio tour is available from The Florence Nightingale Museum's website at www.florence-nightingale.co.uk, priced £7.99. It can be downloaded to mp3 players and to CD.


source: dailymail