If you’re all in your feels and in need of a fix, head to The Poetry Pharmacy on Oxford Street and you’ll be offered poetry on prescription. Swapping paracetamol for poem-cetamol pills, patients can choose from a range of poetic remedies. They’ve got just the fix whether you’re suffering from a broken heart, carrying the heavy weight of grief, or fighting with the general stresses of modern life.
There’s everything here that a book lover might need: a literary remedy for every emotional ailment. There are ’emergency anthologies’ and literal ‘chill pills’ filled with poetic verses to help you slow down and catch your breath. You may even wish to be prescribed a cappuccino and a cake from the on-site Dispensary Coffee Shop.
Naturally, we had to go and check it out for ourselves:
The gorgeous concept was founded by poet Deborah Alma and started life as the ‘Emergency Poet’ in 2011, which operated out of a 1970s ambulance. They would visit festivals, hospitals, libraries and schools, dispensing poems-in-pills to those who may not have given poetry much of a chance before.
The goal was—and still is—to promote the fact that poetry can go a long way to support mental health, with frankly underrated therapeutic effects.
They later opened the world’s first walk-in poetry pharmacy in the heart of the Shropshire Hills. Like their Oxford Street store, the stock is all chosen with a particular emotional ailment in mind, from the books on the shelves to the stationery and gifts on offer.
The Poetry Pharmacy in Oxford Street
The Poetry Pharmacy was shortlisted for an Independent Business Award in 2021. Lush was on the judging panel and Co-founder and CEO Mark Constantine got in touch with Deborah after the concept caught his eye. Things started with a very successful pop-up at Lush Studios in 2023, and now, The Poetry Pharmacy is operating out of Lush’s three-storey branch on Oxford Street.
Deborah Alma commented: “My long term mission has been to bypass the gatekeepers and bring poetry to more people in playful and engaging ways; and I couldn’t have wished for a better place to do it. With the generous support of Lush, now poetry will be on the most famous shopping street in the world!”