Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret
Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret, Medical history museum in Southwark, England.
The Old Operating Theatre Museum occupies an attic space within St Thomas' Church and contains an intact operating theatre from the 1800s with original surgical instruments and medical tools. Adjacent to the theatre lies the Herb Garret, a storage space that housed medicinal plants and preserved healing herbs.
The operating theatre was constructed in 1822 and functioned for four decades as a teaching facility for medical students before closing in 1862. It remained closely connected to St Thomas Hospital below, which provided patients for treatment and instruction.
The operating theatre served as a public learning space where medical students watched surgeries from tiered seats, turning medical procedures into teaching moments. This practice reveals how medicine was learned through direct observation rather than textbooks during that era.
Visitors must climb a narrow spiral staircase of around 50 steps to reach the exhibits, which can be challenging for those with mobility issues. Comfortable footwear is recommended, and allowing extra time helps you explore the spaces at your own pace.
Dried poppy seeds were discovered in the rafters during restoration work, providing direct evidence of the herbs once stored there. This finding reveals what natural materials were used to create pain relief medicines before modern pharmaceuticals became available.
Location: London Borough of Southwark
Accessibility: Wheelchair inaccessible
Address: 9a St Thomas Street, London SE1 9RY
Opening Hours: Monday-Sunday 10:30-17:00
Phone: +442071882679
Website: http://thegarret.org.uk
GPS coordinates: 51.50500,-0.08830
Latest update: December 6, 2025 17:47
London offers far more than Tower Bridge and Buckingham Palace. Away from the main attractions, numerous sites remain unfamiliar even to many locals. This selection includes the ruins of St Dunstan-in-the-East, where a medieval church has been transformed into a public garden, the Sir John Soane's Museum with its antiquities and architectural fragments, and Dennis Severs' House, a Georgian townhouse preserved as a lived-in time capsule. The collection features gardens such as Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park and Kyoto Garden in Holland Park, historic buildings like the 14th-century Charterhouse and St Bartholomew the Great, London's oldest parish church. It also covers unusual museums including the Old Operating Theatre, Europe's oldest surviving surgical theater, and industrial monuments like Crossness Pumping Station with its Victorian steam engines. Leadenhall Market displays Victorian architecture in the financial district, while God's Own Junkyard in Walthamstow exhibits thousands of neon signs. Other sites range from the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Hindu temple in Neasden to Wilton's Music Hall, London's oldest music hall, and the Victorian dinosaur sculptures at Crystal Palace Park. Little Venice presents canals lined with houseboats, the Freud Museum preserves the psychoanalyst's London home, and Keats House commemorates the Romantic poet. These locations provide insights into history, architecture, and culture beyond the standard tourist circuit.
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