Real human bodies go on show at Sussex Mansions, Old Brompton Road, from Friday 25 September. Tickets are £13 to £20 and sessions run every half hour.

An exhibition of real human bodies opens on Old Brompton Road on Friday 25 September. BODY WORLDS: The Anatomy of Happiness takes over Sussex Mansions, 79 to 85 Old Brompton Road, SW7 3LD.

The premises are licensed for public display by the Human Tissue Authority, the regulator that has to approve any display of a body of someone who died in the last 100 years.

Tickets on the show’s own booking page start at £13 for a child and £20 for an adult, before booking fees.

What is on show

Bodies and organs in the exhibition are preserved by Plastination. The organisers say the process was invented by Dr Gunther von Hagens in 1977, and that it replaces bodily fluids and soluble fats with reactive plastics. The exhibition is curated by Dr Angelina Whalley, a physician and designer.

The launch material lists these exhibits as confirmed for London:

  • whole-body plastinates called the Guitar Player and the Skateboarder
  • Elegance on Ice, a display made from two plastinates
  • a Horizontal 3D Slice Body
  • a skeleton showing spinal degeneration
  • a brain affected by Alzheimer’s disease
  • a brain slice showing haemorrhage following a stroke
  • smoker’s and non-smoker’s lungs
  • healthy and diseased organs displayed side by side

There are also interactive and photographic displays. They include the Anatomical Mirror, which the organisers say lets visitors picture where their own vital organs sit, a documentary photo series on centenarians, and a Save Your Spine display of ergonomic advice.

BODY WORLDS says more than 58 million people have visited its exhibitions in over 175 cities since the first one opened in Japan in 1995.

Tickets, times and prices

The booking page lists sessions every half hour from 10am to 7pm, and puts the visit at about an hour. All ages are admitted and the venue is described as wheelchair accessible. The booking calendar currently runs from September through to March 2027.

Table of Body Worlds ticket prices: adult £20, group bundle £17, senior or student £16, family bundle £14.50, youth £13, each with a booking fee
Ticket prices and session times as listed on the exhibition's own booking page on 19 September. Graphic by The Kensington Post.
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Prices are worth checking against the launch announcement. When tickets went on sale on 10 September, the organisers said adult tickets started from £18.50, senior and student tickets from £14, and tickets for 6 to 17 year olds from £11. On the booking page today the standard prices are £20, £16 and £13, with the booking fee on top of each.

A family bundle of at least three tickets, including at least one child, is £14.50 a head. A group bundle of four or more is £17 a head. The organisers say discounted educational group rates are also available.

The Human Tissue Authority register records the establishment as Body Worlds Happiness, licence number 12830, in the public display sector, with the status “Licence Granted”. The designated individual named on the licence is Ian Simmons, and the record was last updated on 14 September 2026.

The regulator’s own public display guidance sets out why that matters. If human bodies or body parts on display come from someone who died less than 100 years ago, the premises must be licensed. In England, the HTA says, “consent must be given by the person themselves for any part of their body to be displayed in public”, and that consent “must be written and witnessed”.

The bodies come from the Institute for Plastination body donation programme. People on the programme have declared that their bodies should be used for public display and education through plastination. BODY WORLDS says more than 24,000 people worldwide have registered or bequeathed their bodies to it.

What the organisers say

Dr Angelina Whalley, the curator, said in the launch announcement:

“Through plastination, we are able to present the human body in a memorable and beautiful way, allowing people to learn about anatomy, disease and health in a direct and deeply personal manner.

“With The Anatomy of Happiness, I want to show that our body is not only the basis of life, but also the place where our experiences, emotions and choices leave their traces. Many visitors leave BODY WORLDS with a new awareness of their own body and a new motivation to live more consciously.”

Sorina Burlacu, the organiser of BODY WORLDS London, said:

“We’re incredibly excited to bring BODY WORLDS: The Anatomy of Happiness to London. This is an exhibition that gives people a rare opportunity to understand their own bodies in a completely different way, through real human anatomy. We want visitors to leave not only amazed by what they have seen, but thinking differently about their own health, well-being and the choices they make every day.”

What it means for you

If you live in South Kensington, a ticketed attraction is opening on a stretch of Old Brompton Road that does not usually carry one. It has sessions from 10am to 7pm and a booking calendar running into March. Expect groups arriving and leaving all day rather than one crowd at a time.

If you are thinking of going:

  • book a session time rather than turning up, because entry is timed
  • add the booking fee to the headline price, which is £1.40 on an adult ticket
  • allow about an hour, which is what the organisers say the visit takes
  • a family of three or more pays £14.50 a head, less than a single adult ticket
  • all ages are admitted, but the exhibition’s own site warns that some exhibits and installations contain mature content, and the displays are real bodies and organs, including diseased ones

For getting there, see our guide to Kensington tube and travel, and check roadworks and travel before you set off. More local days out are in things to do in Kensington.

Sources