James May, Thomas Williams and John Bishop in the dock at Bow Street in 1831, accused of murdering a 14-year-old boy and attempting to sell his body to anatomists at King’s College Medical School, then situated at Lincoln’s Inn Fields. (Image: Wellcome Library, London)

Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London. Before the 1600s, the fields were arable and pasture grounds, and the lawyers of Lincoln's Inn vigorously opposed proposals for property development until 1639, when construction of the houses bordering the square began.

By the early 1700s, the square had become a receptacle for 'rubbish, dirt and nastiness of all sorts', where 'robberies, assaults, outrages and enormities have been and continually are committed.' But in 1734 the owners of the surrounding properties began to enclose and maintain the central area. The Fields became open to the public 1894, when the London County Council acquired a lease lasting until 2555.

In the audio guide: a tour of the square and a tale of bodysnatchers and murder.

Simon Chaplin, Senior Curator of the Museums of The Royal College of England, on the Hunter brothers and the Hunterian museum which is located in the Royal College of Surgeons.

Before gaining its Royal Charter in 1800 this organisation was known as the Company of Surgeons, itself a breakaway group from the original Company of Barber-Surgeons. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the work of the barber-surgeon was limited largely to simple procedures such as bloodletting alongside the cutting of hair. The rise of anatomy schools and the serious study of surgery in the 18th Century, however, led to an increase in the status of the practice. By the time that King George II established the separate Company of Surgeons in 1745, surgeons were being university educated.

Whilst here, why not visit the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons? More details at http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums

In the audio guide: the development of surgery and 'cutting for the stone' on Samuel Pepys.

This pen and ink from the 1840s shows Sir James Y Simpson and friends after drinking liquid chloroform in an experiment. (Image: Wellcome Library, London)

Though the square itself was first laid out in 17th Century, the most prominent features are statues of two 20th century figures; Fenner Brockway, the anti war politician and one of the founders of War on Want, and Bertrand Russell, the philosopher and mathematician.

There have been suggestions that the square was at one point the burial site of Oliver Cromwell, though there is little evidence to substantiate this claim. The square is also known as the site of the Red Lion Square disorders in 1974, when anti-fascist protestors clashed with police, leaving one person dead. It is now home to the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the College of Emergency Medicine.

In the audio guide: the great breakthrough of surgical anaesthesia.

Queen Square in 1810, from 'Old and New London' by Edward Walford, published between 1873 and 1878. (Image: Wellcome Library, London)

Queen Square was first set out in 1716. It was originally known as Devonshire Square and was renamed in honour of Anne, the reigning Queen. Initially an aristocratic area, it later become home to artists and intellectuals. In the 19th century, so many hospitals, convents and educational buildings replaced the original houses that Robert Louis Stevenson wrote: 'As you go round [Queen Square], you read, upon every second door plate, some offer of help to the afflicted.'

A bomb from a Zeppelin raid landed on the Gardens in 1915. No one was killed, and a small plaque marks the spot where the bomb landed.

In the audio guide: the history of hospitals.

Child's hospital cot as used in Great Ormond Street Hospital, from the 'Handy Book of Cottage Hospitals' by Horace Swete. (Image: Wellcome Library, London)

Great Ormond Street, which runs eastward from Queen Square into Lamb's Conduit Street, was built at the start of the 1700s. Described in 1708 as 'a street of fine new buildings', the large redbrick houses soon became seen as 'one of the finest situations about town.'

The street has been home to organisations such as the Working Men's College, the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth, the Provident Surgical Appliance Society, the Home for Friendless Girls and the Homoeopathic Hospital. But it is best known for its Hospital for Sick Children - the UK's first hospital dedicated to children - which was founded in 1852 in the mansion at number 49 with space for 10 beds.

In the audio guide: more about the history of the Hospital for Sick Children.

Richard Barnett on Coram's Fields and the Foundling Hospital.

To enter Coram's Fields, a leafy park with a petting zoo and playground, visitors must be accompanied by a child. This restriction reflects its history as the location of the Foundling Hospital, a revolutionary organisation founded in 1739 by Thomas Coram to provide a home for abandoned children. The main building was demolished in the 1920s, leaving only the colonnades either side of what would have been the main drive.

The history of the Hospital is told in the nearby Foundling Museum, which is located to the north of Coram's Fields on Brunswick Square, and contains works by Hogarth and Handel in amongst artefacts relating to life at the hospital.

Whilst here, why not visit the Foundling Museum? More details at http://www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk

In the audio guide: more on Thomas Coram and the Foundling Hospital.

A scene from the accident ward of the Royal Free Hospital on Gray's Inn Road, published in the Illustrated Times and thought to date from 1891. (Image: Wellcome Library, London)

'The old wooden church' of St Andrew's, on top of the hill above the river Fleet, first appears in written records in 951. Stone replaced wood in the 15th century, and Christopher Wren rebuilt most of the church after the Great Fire of 1666 (even though the church survived the fire). In 1941, the church was bombed and gutted, but was restored to Wren's designs.

Thomas Coram, founder of the Foundlings' Hospital in 1741, is buried in the church, and it was on these church steps that William Marsden found a dying girl, inspiring him to set up the Royal Free Hospital.

In the audio guide: the story behind the radical Royal Free Hospital.

Portraits of Elizabeth Blackwell, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Sophia Jex-Blake, founders of the School of Medicine for Women, published around 1916. (Image: Wellcome Library, London)

Here, close to the shops and restaurants of the Brunswick Centre, stands the former London School of Medicine for Women, still fulfilling a medical role as the Hunter Street Health Centre. The original signage is still visible above the doorway and on a plaque found to the left of the entrance.

The School was founded in 1874 by an association of pioneering female medics, each of whom had had to fight against the prejudices of the day to gain their medical education.

In the audio guide: how the first female doctors overcame great opposition to achieve medical degrees and set up the School.

An ambulance at the Endell Street Hospital in 1919, the year the Ministry of Health was established. (Image: Wellcome Library, London).

Herbrand Street, which runs between Tavistock Place and Bernard Street, has an eclectic mix of buildings. These range from the Friend at Hand pub, built in 1735 and claiming Charles Dickens as one of its patrons, to the 1931 art-deco Daimler garage. The Horse Hospital, built in 1797, is a fine example of a two-floor, purpose built stable for 24 horses, while the rather unassuming brick shed was home to London's first public ambulance station, built in 1915.

In the audio guide: the LCC Ambulance Station and the rise of state medicine.

Drawing by Ernest Howard Shepard showing members of the British Medical Association represented as gladiators conceding the introduction of the National Health Service to Aneurin Bevan, who is represented as Nero. From 1946. (Image: Wellcome Library, London)

Unlike other parts of Bloomsbury, the land that became Tavistock Square was still open fields at the end of the 1700s. Building on the east side began in 1803, and the garden and the other sides of the square were constructed in the 1820s.

The square's literary connections began in 1851, when Charles Dickens moved here. In 1924, Virginia and Leonard Woolf took a house at number 52, where together they ran the Hogarth Press and Virginia became a best-selling writer.

In the audio guide: BMA house, the British Medical Association and setting up the NHS.

A photograph from around 1930 of the exterior of the Wellcome Building, which now houses Wellcome Collection, a museum and arts venue. (Image: Wellcome Library, London)

Wellcome Collection at 183 Euston Road is a public venue with a unique mix of galleries and events. It brings to life Sir Henry Wellcome's vision of a place where people could learn more about the development of medicine through the ages and across cultures.

Whilst here, feel free to explore the permanent collections and current exhibitions at Wellcome Collection. More details at http://www.wellcomecollection.org

In the audio guide: Henry Wellcome and The Wellcome Trust.