The Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret

Compared to the humongous complexes of some of London's more famous museums, the Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret is absolutely tiny – so tiny, in fact, there's a tight limit on how many people can enter its cramped rooms at any one time. It doesn't let lack of space hold it back when it comes to the exhibits, however, with every available surface of the main display area covered with various surgical implements and medicinal herbs from the dawn of the medical science we rely on today.

Up the street from the Shard and nestled in the attic of St Thomas' Church, on the original site of St Thomas' teaching hospital, you'll have to climb a winding staircase before squeezing into what was once a storage room for drying medicinal herbs. There are bunches of those on display there today, accompanied by knives, saws, scalpels, drills and all sorts of gruesome instruments that will have you thanking your lucky stars you don't live in Victorian times.

That feeling will grow even stronger once you enter the second part of the museum, one of the oldest surviving operating theatres in the world. Packed into the pews around the surgical table, you'll be able to hear the grisly details of amputation without anaesthesia, with brave volunteers even invited to hop onto the table to help with the demonstration.