The secret old operating theatre next to London Bridge Station

In a city like London, with so much history, you’re never more than a stones throw away from something spooky and interesting.

Transcript

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