The Old Operating Theatre

Re-discovered in 1956 on the site of an abandoned and mostly demolished hospital, London's Old Operating Theater is the oldest surviving surgical theatre in Europe.  Adjacent to the theatre is an attic space that serves as a museum dedicated to anatomy, dissection and methods of healing including the use of herbs and leeches. The surviving surgery room, dating from 1822, served only the poor as those with money were treated and operated on at their homes. One can only imagine the screaming that must have taken place here!  This was before 1847, pre-antiseptics and pre-anesthetics, in a time when lab coats, hands, bed linens and surgical instruments were seldom sanitized and patients were awake with no numbing during grisly and painful procedures.

In the giftshop

Anatomy Ephemera

A nurse's chatelaine (worn at the waist)

Old prosthetic wooden leg

Tools of the Obstetrician

The Herb Garret

Heart of an adult and heart of a child

Half section of the brain

Section of the human lung

Mrs. Grieve

The Operating Theatre

An amputation.  Patients were fully awake and
un-anaesthetized during their surgeries
 and therefore required physical restraining.

Operating Table Early 19th Century

Tools for Performing a Trepanation
Making a hole through the skull to the brain 

Tools used for amputations

Tools for Removing Gall Stones

Intriguing Old Rafters

To access the theatre, one must ascend a narrow spiral staircase of 52 steps