This museum in the attic of an old Baroque church shows the conditions in which surgeons operated in the early 1800s (without anaesthetic).
The Old Operating Theatre Museum was originally an operating theatre where medical students would watch operations take place. The patients treated in the operating theatre were exclusively women and most of them were poor people. At the time, richer patients would have been treated in the privacy of their own home.
Most of the operations were amputations as internal surgery was rare at the time and without anaesthetic surgeons would depend on working quickly with only alcohol and opium to dull the patient’s pain.
What to see at the Old Operating Theatre Museum
The Old Operating Theatre Museum is a fascinating look at a time when medical procedures were less advanced. The museum features Europe’s oldest surviving operating theatre and artefacts include instruments for cupping, bleeding and trepanning.
Visiting the Old Operating Theatre Museum
The Old Operating Theatre Museum is near Guys Hospital just south of London Bridge. It is only a few minutes’ walk from London Bridge tube and railway station.
This museum is not wheelchair accessible as entry is via a narrow spiral staircase.
There is a talk about surgery during Victorian times every Saturday at 2pm that features a reenactment of a surgical procedure in an era prior to the use of anaesthetics.
Visitors with a valid London Pass get free entry to the museum.
Other attractions nearby include Borough Market, the Golden Hinde, the Clink Prison Museum, HMS Belfast and View from the Shard.
Free entry to the Old Operating Theatre Museum with the London Pass
The London Pass gives you free entry to the Old Operating Theatre Museum and over 80 other attractions in and around London.
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