The Department of Pharmacology was created in 1917, along with its first Professor who had previously been appointed as the first Reader in the subject in 1912. He was given space in the attics of the University Museum, which the department continued to occupy with increasing difficulty until a vacant building became available in 1928 with the move of the Department of Pathology to the new School named after its benefactor, Sir William Dunn.

The Department of Pharmacology occupied the building immediately adjacent to the south-eastern corner of the Museum which remained unchanged until 1961, when an extension which doubled the available space was completed, made necessary by the combination of increasing numbers of researchers and undergraduates and significant advances in the field.

As a reflection of these continuing trends and as part of the changes in pre-clinical teaching in the school of Medicine the first Professor of Clinical Pharmacology was appointed in 1971 and remains separate from the Department of Pharmacology; in 1972 the name of this Chair was changed to the Rhodes Professorship of Clinical Pharmacology after its endowment.

Further developments in the Department saw in 1983 and 1985 the establishment of units in Immunotoxicology (now defunct) and in Anatomical Neuropharmacology by the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council respectively. In 1991 the Department moved again, to a new building off Mansfield Road, built with a grant from the Bristol-Myers Squib Company.

Undergraduates studying Pharmacology (in 1996) are students of Medicine reading for the Final Honour School of Physiological Sciences, of Biochemistry and of other Natural Sciences. The first examination of Pharmacology, as part of the 2nd BM examination, took place in 1909 and thus anticipated the appointment of the first Reader by three years. In 1971 it became a part of the Final Honour School of Physiological Sciences, and it continues to be a Supplementary Subject in the School of Natural Science as it has been since 1946.

Professors of Pharmacology: