Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret

Scalpel, Please

Part of the old St. Thomas Hospital, the Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garret really was a functioning operating room where students (and spectators) crowded in to watch live surgical procedures performed without anesthetic. Wooden and metal operating tables, surgical equipment, and a variety of frightening saws and knives illustrate the very real dangers of medical care in centuries past.

For gentler souls, the Herb Garret is a cozy, olde-timey attic space full of dried herbs and medicinal concoctions, along with antique medicine bottles and the occasional medical curiosity in a jar. A small but jam-packed museum, there's plenty to look at, especially for those with slightly macabre tastes— just make sure you can walk up the narrow, spiraling stairs, as no elevators are available.