James Parkinson Memorial Day at the Royal London Hospital

16th November was used to mark the 200th Anniversary of James Parkinson's Essay on the Shaking Palsy at the Royal London Hospital. Neurologists, geologists, historians, scientists and students were among those that gathered to hear a series of talks that mainly related to the man himself. There have been numerous other events over the course of the year to mark the 200th anniversary of The Essay, but the focus of many of those was the disease and not the man.

We started the day with a walk around Parkinson's London; taking in the sights of Shoreditch and Hoxton. We then gathered in the Bearsted Lecture Theatre on the Whitechapel Campus of Barts and the London Medical School. We heard talks on the history of Neurology at the London; on Mr Parkinson the surgeon apothecary, the geologist, the political activist and the writer; on the disease that bears his name and on the Jewish East End of London. We rounded off the day with a drinks reception in the Garrod Building and then moved to Apothecaries Hall in central London for dinner.

A further formal report will follow and the recorded lectures will be released in due course...

St Leonard's Church, Shoreditch in which James Parkinson was baptised, married and buried.

 Hoxton Square (southern boundary), the site of James Parkinson's house is directly to the left

Parkinsonia parkinsoni, ammonite 

Dinner at the Apothecaries Hall