Britain's oldest surviving purpose-built operating theatre, the Old Operating Theatre Museum is situated in a herb garret in the roof of St Thomas's Church. Built in 1822 for poor women, the theatre has been restored with original furniture and equipment, including a nineteenth-century operating table, surgical instruments and pathological specimens. Visitors enter via a vertiginous wooden staircase to view a pre-anaesthetic operating theatre with tiered viewing seats for students; sanitised reenactments are sometimes held – just as gruesome as the operating tools that look like torture implements. Temporary exhibitions also take place, which often combine art with explorations of pathology.
Old Operating Theatre Museum

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Details
- Address:
- St Thomas Church
- 9a St Thomas St
- London
- SE1 9RY
- Contact:
- View Website
- 020 7188 2679
- Transport:
- Tube: London Bridge
- Price:
- Admission: £20 flat rate for group of 6
- Opening hours:
- Open Sat-Sun 10:30am-5pm
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