Florence Nightingale’s image projected onto Parliament

During the day on Tuesday, chief nursing officer Ruth May and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby both visited St Thomas' Hospital as part of the Nightingale 200 commemorations.

Florence Nightingale established her school of nursing at St Thomas' in 1860.

Prime minister Boris Johnson said: "200 years ago today, while holidaying at a villa in Tuscany, a young English couple welcomed the arrival of a beautiful baby girl. The birth would have been much like any other at the time. But this child's life would prove to be anything but typical.

"Because Florence Nightingale – author, data scientist and above all the pioneer of modern nursing – would go on to change the world forever.

"She revolutionised Victorian healthcare, establishing principles that stand to this day. She changed and shaped the very perception of what a nurse is, what a nurse should be, transforming the job into what she called 'the finest of fine arts'.

"And in so doing she saved lives not just in her own lifetime and her own country but for decades to come and in every corner of the globe. That's why it's no coincidence that today, her birthday, is also International Day of the Nurse."

The Florence Nightingale Museum at St Thomas' is currently running an urgent fundraising appeal to secure its future as it finds its doors shut during what should have been a busy bicentenary year.