Hunterian Museum

#69

Inside the Royal College of Surgeons, the Hunterian reframes 18th-century ‘anatomy fever’ for a modern audience. John Hunter’s specimen empire—once fuelled by curiosity, controversy and the black market of bodies—now anchors a lucid story of how surgeons learned, erred and improved. The 2023 revamp swaps shock value for context: exquisite preparations, early instruments and patient stories explain how techniques evolved from speed and spectacle to evidence and ethics. Expect 60–75 focused minutes; it’s compact but densely illuminating.

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Opening Hours

Tuesday: 10:00 – 17:00

Wednesday: 10:00 – 17:00

Thursday: 10:00 – 17:00

Friday: 10:00 – 17:00

Saturday: 10:00 – 17:00

What's not to miss inside?

Specimen Gallery, Reimagined

From cabinets of wonder to evidence

Thousands of preparations—human and animal—arranged to teach pathology rather than merely astonish.

Choose one jarred organ; read its label and then find a ‘healthy’ counterpart to compare texture and cause.

📍 Main hall vitrines

Tools of the Trade

Surgery before anaesthesia & antisepsis

Bone saws, tourniquets and bullet extractors reveal why speed once trumped subtlety.

Time yourself reading a label out loud—many amputations were faster than that.

📍 Introductory galleries

Learning to See

When microscopes changed diagnosis

Tiny lenses turned surgeons into historians of tissue—suddenly disease had a timeline.

Find one slide image and trace the ‘before/after’ logic across nearby cases.

📍 Microscopy & teaching section

Human Stories

Patients as partners, not props

Letters, sketches and consent histories shift the focus from specimen to person.

Read one case note, then walk back to the jar it references—context changes everything.

📍 Case notes & portraits

🤓 Fun Facts

The famous skeleton of Charles Byrne—the 7’7” ‘Irish Giant’ purchased by John Hunter in 1783—is no longer on display; after the 2023 reopening it’s retained for research, reflecting modern ethics around consent.

Much of Hunter’s original collection was damaged in the Blitz (1941); meticulous catalogues and surviving preparations allowed a post-war reconstruction of the museum.

John Hunter’s private school trained a generation of surgeons who spread his specimen-based teaching across Britain and beyond—an early ‘open source’ of medical technique (minus the open licensing).

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