The Old Operating Theatre

In the eaves of St Thomas's church in Southwark, is hidden an old operating theatre and herb garret.

This building can be read as a series of internal mutations over the centuries. Originally a church as part of St Thomas's Hospital (which may have been founded in 1173), the church was rebuilt between 1698 and 1701 with the separate roof space used as a herb garrett to store and cure herbs. One end of the garret was converted into an operating theatre circa 1822, and currently the church itself contains offices.

The operating theatre has semi-concentric rings of standing platforms from which young medical students could observe the operations. There is a large skylight above the lonely operating table in centre of the room, which lends a strange sacrificial aspect to this macabre theatre.

The void beneath the theatre floorboards is packed with 3 inches of sawdust to prevent blood leaking into the church below. The building itself is a repository for information on the Victorian English patients, information embedded in the DNA beneath its floorboards.