Victorian Operating Theatre and Mortuary

There’s been a terrible accident on Disease Street! Follow the story to find out what happens when mill girl Hannah Dyson goes under the knife in our recreation of a Victorian operating theatre.

Find out all about surgery in the nineteenth century: a time when operations were swift and brutal, there were no anaesthetics to put you to sleep, and a deadly infection was a likely outcome.

Visit the mortuary to discover how the bodies of the dead have taught us to care for the living.

Start
Hannah Dyson video

Gallery Highlights

Hannah Dyson’s operation

Hannah Dyson’s operation – Watch a recreation of what surgery on an injured child was like almost 200 years ago.

Amputation kit

Gallery Highlights

Amputation Kit

The tools needed to remove a limb when speed was what really counted. 

Workhouse boots

Gallery Highlights

Workhouse Boots

Boots worn by former inmates of this building, many of whom ended up as subjects for dissection.