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The Old Operating Theatre Museum

Europe's oldest surviving operating theatre, hidden in the garret of a church tower where surgeons once worked without anaesthetic.

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The Old Operating Theatre Museum, Europe's oldest surviving operating theatre
Photo: dilettantiquity, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Did you know

Created in 1822 in a church garret once used to store herbs, the theatre was sealed off when St Thomas's Hospital moved in 1862 and lay forgotten for about a century until a historian found it in the 1950s.

Local tip

Go on a weekday morning to avoid a crowded wait on the single-file 52-step spiral staircase that's the only way in. There's no lift for casual visitors and no toilets on site.

Finding it

Address
Old Operating Theatre Museum, 9a, St. Thomas Street, Borough Market, Bermondsey Village, The Borough, London Borough of Southwark, Greater London, England, SE1 9RY
Nearest station
London Bridge (Tube), 100 m away

Details change, so check with the place before you set off.

More places nearby

  • PadellaFood · 100 m awayA small, always-busy pasta counter by Borough Market serving a short, changing menu of handmade pasta at low prices.
  • Borough MarketMarket · 150 m awayOne of London's oldest food markets, packed with stalls under the railway arches near London Bridge.
  • The George InnNightlife · 150 m awayLondon's last surviving galleried coaching inn, steps from Borough Market.
  • Southwark CathedralLandmark · 150 m awayA Gothic cathedral dating from between 1220 and 1420, described as London's first Gothic church, free to enter beside Borough Market with Shakespeare and John Harvard connections.

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