McDonald’s at Guy’s Hospital shuts to make way for Science Gallery

The McDonald's restaurant opened in Boland House at Guy's Hospital in 1992.

The restaurant closes its doors for the last time at 11pm on Sunday 31 January as work starts to create the new Science Gallery London.

Posters announcing the closure direct customers to the McDonald's branches in Cannon Street and at Waterloo Station.

When it opens in late 2017, Science Gallery London will include a range of exhibition, studio and performance spaces, a theatre with retractable seating, a 100-seat cafe and a shop.

The Guy's Hospital quadrangle – currently used as a consultants' car park – will also be restored as a public courtyard.

The gallery's events and free exhibitions will be open to all, but with a particular focus on 15 to 25-year-olds.

Deborah Bull, assistant principal of King's College London, said: "I am delighted that planning permission has been granted and we can now move ahead with our ambitious plans to create Science Gallery at King's College London.

"The gallery will create new opportunities for our students and academics and will engage a broader public with the university's cutting-edge research through collaborations with artists, designers and cultural organisations.

"It will also be a unique and original addition to the vibrant London Bridge area – a focal point for building new connections that will help to ensure King's is relevant to, and part of, the communities around us."

Dr Daniel Glaser joined KCL in 2013 as director of Science Gallery London.

Speaking at a 'Shard Talks' event in 2014, he said: "It was Europe's first McDonald's on a healthcare campus when it opened in 1992.

"The chairman of the hospital trust then said it was part of their commitment to staff welfare that they had brought McDonald's in to the Guy's campus.

"My mother was a consultant at Guy's at the time and I still remember her raw rage at that.

"We're undoing that wrong from many people's perspectives."