Museum & Herb Garret
Life at Sea: The Working Conditions and Health of a Sailor
Posted: July 18, 2024
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Industrial Revolution brought with it rapid technological advances in shipbuilding, which created a positive feedback loop of growth with the expansion of the…
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Tales from Old St Thomas’ Hospital Wards: Sailors & Syphilis
Posted: July 18, 2024
Content Warning The following blog includes a discussion on sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection that can remain latent in the bloodstream for decades if left…
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Why Might A Medieval Hospital Have A Set Of Royal Pewter Plates?
Posted: September 29, 2022
In 1899, a hoard of 20 pewter plates was dug up during construction work to add new buildings at Guy’s Hospital. The area where they were discovered is thought to…
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The Foundations of Modern Public Health: The ‘Body’ and the Environment in Nineteenth Century London
Posted: June 26, 2020
In the beginning there was paradise: “Life was without evils, hard toil and grievous disease.” But all changed, according to the poet Hesiod, as “thousands of miseries now roam among…
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Victorian Parlour Fun & Games
Posted: June 25, 2020
The Victorian’s idea of ‘Home Care’ didn’t just involve physical exercise, they also had to come up with inventive ways to pass the time and stay mentally stimulated while at…
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Introduction to English Witches in the Early Modern Period
Posted: August 1, 2019
Between 1450 and 1750 ecclesiastical and secular courts tried and executed tens of thousand of people throughout Europe for the crime of witchcraft. Witchcraft may be defined as supernatural activity,…
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An Englishman’s Paradise
Posted: August 1, 2019
In 1862, while the new buildings of St Thomas’ were under construction near Westminster Bridge, the hospital temporarily moved to Surrey Gardens. Now a populous area between the Kennington and…
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There Together Be Suspended
Posted: August 1, 2019
On November 13th 1849, the felonious couple Frederick and Maria Manning were publicly executed at the Horsemonger Lane Gaol, Southwark, for the murder of Patrick O’Connor – an affair that…
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Victorian Attitudes Towards Self-Murder
Posted: August 1, 2019
On New Year’s Eve 1811 the body of John Williams, who had hanged himself in prison while awaiting trial for the Ratcliff Highway murders, was paraded through the streets of…
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