Founded in 1843 by Sir Henry Roberts, the Pharmacy of the British Legation was located, up to recent times, in its historic site on Via Tornabuoni, occupied today by a business of another kind. It was on these premises that the British pharmacist created, in 1878, an original mixture of ventilated talc and boric acid, which some thirty years later was to be sold in its famous green box under the name of Boro-Talcum, or Borotalco (talcum powder).

In 1974 the pharmaceutical business was separated from that of the perfumery, which assumed the new name of "Profumeria Inglese", as it is still known today in its present location in Piazza dell'Olio.

Listed among the shops of historic, artistic and documentary interest in the Commune of Florence, the former pharmacy has retained its original mahogany furnishings and the signs on the outside, even after a change of ownership.