wellcome to peyton & byrne

What amuses me most about the Wellcome Collection is the fact that it reminds me of a chain supermarket in Hong Kong called Wellcome. I could never figure out if it was a case of poor engrish (did they mean Welcome?) or some strange amalgamation of ‘welcome’ and ‘well, come on in!’, but I digress. I’ve been wanting to go and explore the strange and wonderful objects there (Collection, not the supermarket, though the description can fit both…) for a while, and the draw of being able to sit down afterwards and have cakes and tea at the Peyton & Byrne cafe afterwards was too much to resist. Of course, I made such a big fuss over the cafe that my flatmate became suspicious that the museum itelf had no other redeeming features. But oh, how wrong was she!

Weird and wonderful it was indeed, from a prosciutto-thin cross-section of a human body to a Chinese torture chair made out of knife blades among the things that made us cringe. An ‘Average Faces’ programme entertained us for a while before we got distracted by the ceiling-high bookshelf full of the entire human genome code, and the map of the world constructed solely of dead mosquitoes. But my friends, perhaps the most disconcerting yet amusing display was the following artefact, which will dutifully be sent to all the males we know:

The fact that its origins were labelled as “probably British” made us chortle all the way to the cafe.

Situated in the grand lobby of the Wellcome Collection, the Peyton & Byrne cafe is light and airy, with a distinctly modern appeal. Slightly oversized wooden chairs and tables punctuated with bright colours (lime green, hot pink, deep purple) were fun, and accentuated the slightly eccentric look and feel of the entire museum. There was a nice selection of cakes, from fig rolls to pear and almond tart, as well as savoury snacks like gorgeous mozzarella and tomato salad, or smoked salmon and dill. But to be honest, I was pretty upset that there were none of the famous P&B cupcakes to be seen, anywhere!

We ended up sharing a large piece of wheat-free chocolate cake, which unfortunately (and perhaps inevitably) disappointed. I don’t know what it is about wheat/gluten-free products, but from the (small) selection I’ve tried in the past, there has always been some sort of strange crunchy graininess about the cake, which I hope someone can shed some light on. It wasn’t my cup of tea, suffice to say. Speaking of the tea, it wasn’t too stellar either. Perhaps this is what happens when you expect too much. However, in true Charmaine fashion, I’m already coveting the gorgeous blue ceramic teacups and plates…

Wellcome Collection
183 Euston Road
London
NW1 2BE
Nearest tube: Euston Square/Euston