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Do not expect to get your prescription honoured at this pharmacy
LOVE HIM OR HATE him, there is no denying that the artist Damien Hirst (born 1965) has plenty of imagination. Between 1997 and 2003, he created a restaurant in London’s Notting Hill Gate. It was called Pharmacy, but had to change its name after the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain objected to it. Its new names were anagrams of the old: first Achy Ramp, and then Army Chap. Its decorative theme was pharmaceutical. For example, its walls were lined with cupboards containing (empty) drug and medicine packaging, as well as clinical equipment. It gave the visitor the impression of being in part of a busy hospital or clinic. From what I can remember of the place, its décor was vastly more exciting than the costly fare served to its customers. I was sad when it closed as it was a distinctive landmark in the area.
In 2016, Damien Hirst opened Pharmacy 2 on the first floor of his recently completed Newport Street Gallery (near Lambeth Palace). For a few years, this pharmacy themed restaurant offered a range of food and drinks, none of which were cheap. The interior of Pharmacy 2 follows on from the original art-installation-cum-restaurant design of the Notting Hill Gate version. An online article (www.dezeen.com/2016/02/18/damien-hirst-pharmacy-2-restaurant-mark-hix-newport-street-gallery-caruso-st-john-london/) describes the place well:
“Similar to its predecessor, which was designed by Barber & Osgerby’s interiors company Universal Design Studio, the interior follows a clinical theme inspired by Hirst’s 1992 artwork Pharmacy. Images of tablets and brightly coloured pills have been embroidered onto leather banquettes and embedded into the marble floor. Bar stools are topped with pastel-coloured pill-shaped seats. Walls are covered with a silver-coloured wall chart of pills and pharmaceutical products first produced for the original Pharmacy restaurant … A neon prescriptions sign hangs above the bar, along with a series of sculptures based on molecular structures. Windows are covered with dark-coloured translucent vinyls. Stark lighting is used to reaffirm the restaurant’s pharmaceutical theme.”
These words give some idea about this fantastic place, but it must be seen to be believed.
Pharmacy 2 has not been functioning as a restaurant for several years. When we visited Newport Street Gallery in May 2025, Pharmacy 2 was open to the public, and visitors can serve themselves with tea and coffee without charge. On each of the restaurant’s tables, there are art books for visitors to browse. The young man, an invigilator, who was keeping an eye on the place told us that occasionally the restaurant is revitalised for feeding visitors participating in special events. At these ‘pop-up’ events, meals are costly.
Pharmacy 2, like its predecessor in Notting Hill Gate, is an art installation. It is appropriate that the canteen of the Newport Street Gallery is not merely a restaurant but also an amazing work of art.
A novel about Cornwall by Daphne du Maurier
I HAVE BEEN TO CORNWALL many times, and always enjoy visiting this unique part of the UK. For many years, it was the home of the author Daphne du Maurier (1907-1989). She died in the Cornish town of Fowey, where she had a house, which is still owned by her family. Despite having visited Cornwall so many times, it was only recently (October 2023) that I first read one of her novels. The one I chose is called “The House on the Strand”. It is an exciting book, which is difficult to set aside once you begin reading it.
Richard Young is spending a holiday in Cornwall in a house owned by his old friend, a scientist Magnus, who is a professor at the University in London. Magnus has developed a set of related drugs, which he and Richard decide to test on themselves. Both men experience the same effects of these hallucinogenic substances. Within minutes of drinking a dose, they are transported back to 14th century Cornwall and become witnesses to events that they later discover had been recorded in historical records. Both men become witnesses to things that were happening during that far off period in the area where Magnus’s house is located. The desire to know more and more leads both men to keep taking the drug.
Things begin to get complicated when sooner than expected Richard’s wife and his stepchildren join him in Cornwall. The drug has odd side-effects that make Richard’s wife both worried and suspicious. As the days pass, things become more and more complicated, and eventually there is a series of tragic events.
The plot is ingenious and intriguing. By transporting Magnus and Richard back to mediaeval times, the author was able to describe Cornwall today and as it might have been in those days. The novel is also about addiction and how it develops. Further, Du Maurier describes the conflict between truth, half-truth, and deception. Not only is this novel a delightful story about Cornwall but also it is a brilliant depiction of certain types of human behaviour and how it has changed over the centuries.
Over the counter
The French philosopher Voltaire is believed to have written:
” Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, for human beings of which they know nothing.”
I was at a party in Athens, Greece, in the early 1980s when I suddenly became aware of bilateral back pain and nausea. Luckily, there was a medical doctor amongst the guests. He diagnosed a kidney or bladder infection and wrote a prescription for bactrim. The tablets were very effective and rapid acting.
A year or so later, I was flying to Greece via Rome in Italy when I experienced a recurrence of the symptoms. As I had quite a long stopover in Rome, I took the opportunity to visit a pharmacy, but this time without a prescription. To my great surprise and relief, the pharmacist sold me some bactrim without requiring a prescription.
In the UK, it is not possible to obtain antibiotics and most other medications without a prescription. There are also rules determining how much non prescription medication can be bought at any one time.
In India, which I visit often, I have never been asked for a prescription to obtain any kind of medication. One just asks for the medicine or tablets required, and then following payment they are handed over the counter. Quite a few of the medications I have needed in India have been clearly marked as prescription only medicines, but these words are ignored by the pharmacy salespeople.
Having been trained as a dentist I have some knowledge of pharmacology. So, I feel that I am unlikely to abuse the ease of obtaining medicines in India, but I worry about others with less knowledge than me.
The freedom of being able to obtain medications without having to first get a prescription has mixed blessings. On the one hand, if you are certain that you need a particular drug or simply need a repeat of what you have been taking, not needing a prescription can save you time and money that visiting a doctor entails. On the other hand, self diagnosis and self treatment is not without risk.
What Voltaire wrote many years ago is less true today than it was then. But, still, even after so many advances have been made in medical science , a great deal of ignorance about the human body remains.
yamey 