In a city like London, with so much history, you’re never more than a stones throw away from something spooky and interesting.
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00:00There are so many weird and wonderful attractions in London. In a city with so
00:05much history, you're never too far away from something bizarre and interesting.
00:10For those getting off the train at London Bridge, many won't realise how
00:15close they are to one of the world's oldest operating theatres. Hidden away in
00:21an attic next to one of the UK's most famous stations is the old operating
00:26theatre and Herb Garrett open to the public. To enter this museum you have to
00:32climb up 52 steps on a spiral staircase only big enough for one person to come
00:37up or down with a traffic light system showing customers when it's safe to
00:42enter or exit. At the end of the staircase you pay your admission of £9
00:48for an adult, £5.50 for a child, £7 for a concession and offers for
00:53family tickets too. Then it's in we go. First to the open Herb Garrett, in here
00:59you'll find lots of old timey medicines and instruments from brutal looking
01:04knives to scales and anaesthetics as well. After looking around the Herb
01:09Garrett, customers can head into the actual operating theatre itself and see
01:14where people were surgically worked on around 200 years ago. The theatre both
01:21stands like a medical Coliseum as back then people watched on to examine the
01:26surgery for research purposes. There is little public information about
01:32operating theatres at Old Thomas from its foundation until the 18th century.
01:36The church that contains the old operating theatre museum was built at
01:41the end of the 17th century when the hospital and church were largely
01:45rebuilt by Sir Robert Clayton, president of the hospital and a former Lord Mayor
01:50of the City of London. In 1822 a part of the Herb Garrett was converted into a
01:56purpose-built operating theatre. Previous operations had taken place on the ward.
02:01Windows were provided for the Garrett at the same time, suggesting that its
02:05function changed from a storage to a working environment. This strange
02:11situation was due to the female surgical wards abutting the Garrett which may
02:15have been used as a recovery ward. In fact this place is actually the oldest
02:20surviving surgical theatre in Europe for female patients. In 1859 Florence
02:27Nightingale became involved with St Thomas's, setting up on this site her
02:32famous nursing school. On her advice the hospital agreed to move to a new site
02:37when the Charing Cross Railway Company offered to buy the hospital's land. In
02:431862 the hospital began the move to its present site at Lambeth and the
02:48operating theatre was closed, lying undiscovered up until 1957. For more on
02:55this and other historical landmarks around the capital head to LondonWorld.com