Step into the shadowy past of 19th-century Southwark, where surgeons trained, body snatchers lurked, and the demand for dissection subjects fuelled a grim underground trade.

Join the Old Operating Theatre for a gripping 90-minute historical walk, retracing the footsteps of famed surgeon Sir Astley Cooper and the notorious Borough Gang - London’s most infamous body snatchers.

Discover the ‘necessary inhumanity’ of early surgical training, the rise of anatomy schools, and the legal loopholes that allowed the resurrection men to thrive. Learn how the fear of body snatching led to extreme precautions, and uncover the events that ultimately led to the Anatomy Act of 1832.

📍 Meeting Point: Guy's Courtyard, next to the statue of Thomas Guy. 

ABOUT THE OLD OPERATING THEATRE & HERB GARRET

Located in the attic of an 18th-century church, the Old Operating Theatre Museum offers a fascinating glimpse into the history of medicine and surgery, featuring a timber-framed Herb Garret once used for drying medicinal plants and Europe’s oldest surviving surgical theatre for women, where operations took place before anaesthetics and antiseptics.