Let’s hope you stay happy and healthy when you come to learn English at the Islington Centre of English but if, sadly, you have to be admitted to hospital you may be taken an operating theatre. The higher-level students of English may query the word “theatre”. Surgeons operating on patients do not expect applause, as they are not in a “theatre”. However nearly 200 years ago they did operate in theatres as the public were allowed to watch operations. Some were restricted to medical students and the most famous today is the one in the chapel tower of Old St Thomas’ hospital in St Thomas Street at the South end of London Bridge. It is now a museum that you can visit and see where operations were carried out sometimes without anesthetic. The main hospital was moved in 1862 to make way for London Bridge Station - the first London terminus.
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