Join the Old operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret as they demonstrate a surgery and speak about the Victorian Operating Theatre.
Step back in time to 1822 and experience surgery as it was practiced before the advent of anaesthesia and antiseptics. In this immersive session, you will take on the role of a 19th-century medical student, or even a patient, inside the historic Old Operating Theatre at St Thomas' Church. Explore the original architecture of the Women’s Ward at St. Thomas’s Hospital, where surgeries were swift and often risky due to the high chance of infection.
Discover how this operating theatre was once used to store herbs and medicines, long before modern medicine took hold. Learn about the evolution of surgery and the development of treatments that have shaped our approach to health today. The session will culminate in a mock demonstration of Victorian-era surgery, offering a fascinating and somewhat chilling look into the history of medicine.
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.