iVisit... Disease X: London’s next epidemic?

Disease X: London’s next epidemic? was a temporary exhibition at the Museum of London between November 2018 and March 2019.

To mark the 100 year anniversary of the deadliest wave of the Spanish Flu, they looked back at the past history of epidemics on Londoners. they wondered if the city might be at risk from an unknown ‘Disease X’, as the World Health Organisation called it.

London has been hit by many deadly epidemics over the centuries, including plague, cholera, smallpox, influenza and HIV/AIDS. They used their collections, new historical research and interviews with public health experts and epidemiologists to consider what impact a future outbreak could have on London.

Today London, like the rest of the world, has fallen victim to the Covid-19 pandemic. Life has changed in a way almost unimaginable when they created this exhibition. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been cut short and millions have been infected with a previously unknown virus. Here they share the stories, objects and words of the Disease X exhibition, to demonstrate what the past can tell us about epidemics and their impact on London.