The Old Operating Theatre museum is just that it’s the only surviving operatin
g theatre from the early 1800’s which a oddly is located in the attic of an old church which use to be attached to the St Thomas’ Hospital. As with all the old buildings throughout Europe we climbed to the attic up a ridiculously narrow and steep set of stairs which might as well have been a ladder.
We started in the "herb" area where they had samples of all of the herbs that they use to use to treat various ailments. They also had a whole range of medical instruments which grossed us out quite a bit. The operating theatre was literally a theature with enough seats for a large number of people to view the operation in progress. It even had the original wooden table which they used and which still had some splattered blood stains over it.
We then moved to a display of graphic drawings showing examples of how operations where performed. One drawing showed images of a surgery where eight men were holding down the patient while he had his arm amputated and another showing preciesely how they would go about removing first the muscle then the bone. We walked out feeling very queasy and were glad we didn’t eat before we went in. It was definitely worth a look and if you actually had any interest in medial history it would definitely be the place to go.
g theatre from the early 1800’s which a oddly is located in the attic of an old church which use to be attached to the St Thomas’ Hospital. As with all the old buildings throughout Europe we climbed to the attic up a ridiculously narrow and steep set of stairs which might as well have been a ladder.We started in the "herb" area where they had samples of all of the herbs that they use to use to treat various ailments. They also had a whole range of medical instruments which grossed us out quite a bit. The operating theatre was literally a theature with enough seats for a large number of people to view the operation in progress. It even had the original wooden table which they used and which still had some splattered blood stains over it.
We then moved to a display of graphic drawings showing examples of how operations where performed. One drawing showed images of a surgery where eight men were holding down the patient while he had his arm amputated and another showing preciesely how they would go about removing first the muscle then the bone. We walked out feeling very queasy and were glad we didn’t eat before we went in. It was definitely worth a look and if you actually had any interest in medial history it would definitely be the place to go.
