About Us
The Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret (OOT) was founded in 1962 and is an independent charity, governed by the Lord Brock Trust (LBT), at the heart of London’s Borough of Southwark.
It raises income from admission, group visits, shop sales, events and venue hire, supplemented by grants, sponsorship, and donations and is Fully Accredited by Arts Council England.
Housed in the attic of the early eighteenth-century church of the old St Thomas’ Hospital, the Museum offers a unique insight into the history of medicine and surgery. The original timber framed Herb Garret was once used to dry and store herbs for patients’ medicines and in 1822, an operating theatre was built within it to host surgeries as part of the hospital’s treatment and teaching responsibilities. Predating the periods of modern anaesthetics and antiseptics, it is the oldest surviving surgical theatre in Europe.
