The Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret

It’s well worth climbing the tiny spiral staircase to this 19th century operating theatre in the attic of St Thomas’s Church—you can really imagine gruesome scenes in the horseshoe-shaped theatre. The herb garret is stuffed with interesting and sinister objects, including medical specimens, skeletons, and some truly terrifying operating equipment. The entire space was lost in 1862 when St Thomas’s Hospital moved and the entrances to the theatre were blocked up. In 1956 it was rediscovered by a researcher, and it’s the only 19th century operating theatre to have survived in Europe.