Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garret

On Thursday June 30, the EIL students (composed of several Biomedical Engineering majors) along with Profs. Berry and Aaron visited the Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garret on St. Thomas Street (between The Shard and Borough Market). Housed in the attic of the early eighteenth-century church of the old St Thomas’ Hospital, this atmospheric museum offers a unique insight into the history of medicine and surgery. The original timber framed Herb Garret was once used to dry and store herbs for patients’ medicines and in 1822 an operating theatre was included. Predating anaesthetics and antiseptics, it is the oldest surviving surgical theatre in Europe.