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Europe's oldest surviving operating theatre, from the years before anaesthetics, in a church attic up fifty-two spiral steps.
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Also in Science & Engineering.
St Thomas' Hospital rebuilt its church in 1703 and put a long attic under the roof for its apothecary to dry herbs; dried opium poppies were still in the rafters when it was found again. In 1822 part of the garret was walled off and fitted with tiers of standing room to make an operating theatre for the women's ward next door, and for forty years surgeons worked here on patients who were awake, held down and given nothing for the pain but speed, in front of students watching from the rails; a box of sawdust under the table caught the blood. When the hospital moved to Lambeth in 1862 the theatre was sealed and forgotten, until a historian climbed into the roof in 1956 and found it intact. It is the oldest operating theatre in Europe and the only one of its kind left, reached by a spiral stair of fifty-two steps, with the instruments, the specimens and the herb garret around it, and demonstrations of what the surgeons did that are not for the squeamish.
| Monday | Closed |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | Closed |
| Wednesday | Closed |
| Thursday | 10:30 – 17:00 |
| Friday | 10:30 – 17:00 |
| Saturday | 10:30 – 17:00 |
| Sunday | 10:30 – 17:00 |
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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.