51°30′32″N 0°11′58″W / 51.50889°N 0.19944°W / 51.50889; -0.19944
Pharmacy was a restaurant in Notting Hill, London, which opened in 1997.[1] It was succeeded by Pharmacy 2, which also closed.[2] The venture was backed by Damien Hirst and public relations specialist Matthew Freud.
Name dispute
It gained further publicity thanks to a dispute with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain which claimed the name and the pill bottles and medical items on display could confuse people looking for a real pharmacy. The name itself was breaching the Medicines Act 1968, which restricts the use of "pharmacy". The restaurant's name was subsequently changed to "Army Chap", and then "Achy Ramp": anagrams of "Pharmacy".
Closure
However, initial plans to open further restaurants outside London were quietly dropped and the restaurant itself closed in September 2003.[3][4][5]
Hirst, who had only loaned the restaurant the artwork on display on the premises, went on to earn over £11 million when the items were auctioned at Sotheby's.[6] The restaurant's artwork was celebrated in a 2011 exhibition in Leeds Art Gallery.[7]
Revival
On 26 February 2016 Hirst opened his Pharmacy 2 restaurant inside his Newport Street Gallery in Vauxhall, a conversion of 1913 theatrical workshops into a free public art gallery.[8] It closed after a year.
References