5 January 2009

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The Old Operating Theatre Museum

Competition is now closed.

Congratulations to Mrs McKee from Bexleyheath and Kris Musikant from London NW8 on winning our competition.

We have 2 FREE family tickets to give away. Simply email your name and address to London@whatson4kids.com by 13th March for a chance to win.

The mission: a half term outing to London for 2 eleven year old boys who are usually surgically bonded to game boys and iPod´s which is interesting, informative and keeps their imagination fired and makes them say "that was great!"

Mission accomplished!

An amazing morning spent exploring The Old Operating Theatre Museum and an afternoon let loose aboard HMS Belfast (the report on HMS Belfast is covered separately)

The Old Operating Theatre, Museum & Herb Garret

9a St. Thomas´ Street, Southwark, London, SE1 9RY
Tel. 020 7188 2679 (or 020 8 806 4325). Email: curator@thegarret.org.uk
Nearest tube station is London Bridge

London Bridge station is a brilliant starting point for a "visiting" day out in London as there are SO many attractions within a short stroll.

The Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garret are housed in the roof space of a Baroque, 19th century church, St Thomas the Apostle. I´m afraid this place is seriously unfriendly for anyone who cannot climb up a winding wooden staircase but forgive that and enjoy a piece of recent–ish history which will make you so very grateful for the NHS, modern medicine and most importantly the invention of anaesthetic!

Enter the Herb Garret first where the first sign you see is PLEASE DO TOUCH...now that is the sort of sign a child likes to read. Follow the various trails if you wish or simply move around the exhibits admiring (?) the specimen jars of strangulated hernias, slices of kidney or lung or the array of poison bottles containing the treatments commonly used here until 1862. I (a grown woman and mother of 3) winced most at the selection of midwifery tools including enormous forceps and tragically large hooks for when the doctor had to make the choice between the life of the mother and the baby...aagh. All the exhibits stimulate questions and provoke thought about how it was "in the olden days".

Moving on there is a side vestibule which houses surgical instruments such as trepanning sets for drilling holes in the skulls of those unfortunate souls deemed to have "bad humours" or leeching tools with which patients were bled until they fainted and were deemed fever–free. Past various images of early amputations you arrive in the Operating Theatre itself. This was a surgical theatre where the poor were treated and where student doctors came to watch operations, whilst leaning against narrow wooden rails. The surgeon would wear a frock coat which was often none too clean and may or may not bother washing his hands after the event.

Read the full history of this incredible place and make a date to visit yourself.

There are many inspiring if not squirm–making events which take place if you require even more reality!

VICTORIAN SURGERY

Saturday 10th February, 3rd & 24th March & 7th April at 2pm
"A patient preparing for an operation was like a condemned criminal preparing for execution."
In Britain´s only surviving 19th century operating theatre, a lecture demonstrating the ordeal of Victorian surgery, when a patient´s only relief from agony was the speed of the surgeon´s knife...

THE SKULL & THE SAW:

RELEASING DEMONS
Saturday 31st March at 2pm
Trepanning is one of the most ancient operations known to man. Prehistoric skulls with man–made holes have been found – an attempt to kill or cure...? Experience the fearsome instruments; drills and brutal saws once used in this worrying practice.

SCIENCE WEEK EVENTS

SHELLEY WILSON – "JOINT ACCOUNT"
10th March – 9th April 2007
From Science Week until 9th April 2007, the Old Operating Theatre hosts a site specific exhibition funded by the Arts Council and created by sculptor Shelley Wilson. Inspired by conjoined twins, Wilson´s eerie wax sculptures suggest this condition is a metaphor for the complicated divisions of life. Working from life, and advised by scientist Armand Leroi (author of the book "Mutants", and responsible for the Channel 4 programme of the same name), the sculptures create a new experience from a traditional wax medium, used in such anatomical sculptures as the 19th Century work of Joseph Towne.

JOINED AT THE HIP

Artist–led Workshop by Shelley Wilson
Saturday 10th March at 2pm
Imagine being born attached to your brother or sister! Conjoined twins have fascinated people since the birth of Chang and Eng in 1811; the first "Siamese" twins to survive infancy. But how much do you really know about the condition? Until the advances of the 20th Century, lack of surgical techniques would have left you permanently attached to your conjoined twin: family–friendly activities help you experience the limitations and advantages of being tied to a "friend". Dare you bond...? All ages welcome!

FROM BLOODLETTING & PURGES

TO BLOOD TESTS, TRANSPLANTS & MERGES!
Two Talks & A Walk for National Science Week
Saturday 17th March at 2pm
With Dr David Leaback (Royal Society of Chemistry Historical Group) and Karen Howell (Curator of the Old Operating Theatre Museum) Nineteenth Century patient care at the United Guy´s & St Thomas´ Hospitals incorporated over 30,000 leeches a year! Yet, through the 19th & 20th Centuries, the Hospitals´ pioneering surgeons, physicians and chemists advanced such standard crude treatments as blood–letting, purges and brutally painful surgery to institute more effective, modern, science–based patient care. Two illustrated talks link the early foundations to the development towards modern hospital medicine practice, with an opportunity to see scientific experiments at work. The presentation concludes with a short walk into Guy´s Hospital, to see one of the most important scientific discoveries of the 20th Century, wax models of gangrene and scabies, and a blunderbuss! FREE event if booked in advance! Call 020 7188 2679 or email curator@thegarret.org.uk to register.

The museum is open every day from:
10.30am to 5.00pm
Open Bank Holidays except Christmas Day and Boxing Day and closed 15th Dec – 5th Jan.
Museum Admission Prices
Full Price £5.25 Concession £4.25 Child (under 16) £3.00 Family (up to 2 adults and 4 children from same family) £12.95

Schools Groups – each group (of over 10), booking in advance, receive a free lecture/introduction to the Museum and pay £3.00 per pupil. Accompanying adults free. See Group information

Groups – each group (of over 10), booking in advance, receive a free lecture/introduction to the Museum and pay the rate as above. See Group information.

Group Walks – Groups can also take a walk around the Local area – either as a general historical walk, or as a ´Public Health in Southwark´ walk. Combined walk and talk is £7.45 for schools, and £8.45 for adult groups. Walk, no visit £5.45

´After Hours´ Reception – Talk in the Museum with glass of wine – for clubs and societies – £10.25 per person – minimum group size of 20. For further information.

London Pass – Visiting many museums? – Want to save money? – then buy a London Pass! – accepted at the Museum.