Thackray Museum, Medical museum at St James Hospital Northside Building, Leeds, England.
The Thackray Museum is a medical museum housed in the Northside Building at St James Hospital in Leeds. It displays eleven permanent galleries with medical instruments, healthcare equipment, and more than 47,000 artifacts ranging from Roman times to modern medicine.
The building opened in 1861 as Leeds Union Workhouse, serving as an institution for the poor. In 1997 it transformed into a medical museum and remains a Grade II listed structure today.
The museum presents how people dealt with illness and care across different periods, particularly through Disease Street, which recreates what sickness looked like in Victorian Leeds. Visitors can observe how medical practices shaped daily life and how much health treatment has changed over time.
The museum is open throughout the day with a final entry time in the late afternoon. Visitors should allow enough time to explore the various galleries at a comfortable pace.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum became the first in the country to function as a vaccination center while remaining open as a museum. This unexpected role showed how the building maintained its connection to healthcare delivery.
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