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Monday 10am - 4pm Tuesday 10am - 4pm Wednesday 10am - 4pm Thursday 10am - 4pm Friday 10am - 4pm

The Anaesthesia Heritage Centre

Name: The Anaesthesia Heritage Centre
Address: 21 Portland Place, London, W1B1PY, GB
Telephone: 02076311650
Price range: $
Rating: 4.3

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The Anaesthesia Heritage Centre

The Anaesthesia Heritage Centre tells the remarkable story of anaesthesia, from its first public dem Free admission.

vide excellent facilities for research into the history of anaesthesia. The Anaesthesia Heritage Centre is open Monday - Friday, 10.00 - 16.00. Tube stations: Oxford Circus, Regents Park, Great Portland Street
Train stations: Euston, St Pancras/ King's Cross
Buses: 7, 8, 10, 18, 25, 27, 30, 55, 73, 88, 98, 176, 205, 553, C2

For more information visit:
https://anaesthetists.org/Home/Heritage-centre

05/03/2025

We’re hard at work on our upcoming exhibition exploring the future of anaesthesia—looking back at game-changing innovations and showcasing what’s next. To bring this vision to life, we’re looking to acquire or borrow some contemporary equipment.

Can you help? We’re specifically looking for:

* Packaging from new anaesthetics – such as remimazolam
* VR headsets – to highlight how virtual reality is transforming anaesthesia today and in the future. Do you have connections with universities, hospitals, or companies that might be able to lend us one or two for the exhibition?

All contributors will be credited and thanked in the exhibition!

If you can help, please email [email protected] – we’d love to hear from you.

28/02/2025

There are many weird and wonderful contraptions from anaesthesia’s past. Turns out, 19th century doctors were also pretty good inventors. 👨‍🔧🧑‍🔬

Can you guess what this device is? We welcome wrong answers too!

(Read on for the answer 👀)

It is actually a Clover inhaler modified by Frederick William Hewitt, c1877. Inhalers were an early and simplistic version of the modern anaesthetic machine, designed for patients to inhale anaesthetic gases from.

Hewitt adapted Joseph Clover’s original inhaler to enable top ups of ether mid-surgery without removing it from the patients’ mouth.

📍 21 Portland Place, London, W1B 1PY
Open 10:00–16:00 Monday to Friday, entry is FREE!
(Link in bio)
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24/02/2025

Don’t miss our online talk tomorrow exploring the fascinating history of women in anaesthesia. 🧑‍⚕️

Celebrate International Women’s Day early discovering stories of female medical pioneers who shaped the specialty we know today.

Dr Feneck covers everything from women’s admission to medical school, hospital appointments and the origins of the NHS. 🏥

Last chance to book for the live talk!

Link in bio🔗

18/02/2025

Calling all history of medicine enthusiasts 📢

Catch Dr Feneck’s History of anaesthesia online talk on Tuesday 25 February to uncover the hidden histories of female anaesthetists.

Book now. 🎟️

Link in bio. 🔗

Will we see you there!?

14/02/2025

Approaches to pain management aren’t just a medical matter. People’s philosophical and religious ideas about pain also influenced the development of anaesthesia.

While herbal remedies had been used for anaesthesia in surgery dating back to 1804 in Japan, medical and social understandings of pain took a little longer to develop in the West.

Here are some facts about the influence of Romanticism on Western pain management.

11/02/2025

Happy Women and Girls in Science Day!

Our Anaesthesia hall of fame celebrates some of the incredible pioneering women of medicine.

Catch our online talk exploring the history of women in anaesthesia on 25 February to learn more. Link in bio.

📍 21 Portland Place, London, W1B 1PY
Open 10:00–16:00 Monday to Friday, entry is FREE!
(Link in bio)
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07/02/2025

As we prepare for International Day of Women and Girls in Science next week it feels fitting to share this great dedication from Virginia Thatcher’s History of Anaesthesia, With Emphasis on the Nurse Specialist (c1953).

What a lovely sentiment!

📍 21 Portland Place, London, W1B 1PY
Open 10:00–16:00 Monday to Friday, entry is FREE!
(Link in bio)
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06/02/2025

Object in focus 🔍 ECG Apparatus used on King George VI, c.1951

King George VI was a heavy smoker and was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1951.

On 23 September, he had his left lung removed in a converted room at Buckingham Palace.
Anaesthetists Robert Machray and Cyril Scurr attended and brought this ECG with them from Westminster Hospital the morning of the surgery.

King George did recover but later died on 5
February the next year.

You can find the famous ECG at the Anaesthesia Museum:

📍 21 Portland Place, London, W1B 1PY
Open 10:00–16:00 Monday to Friday, entry is FREE!
(Link in bio)
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31/01/2025

Object in focus 🔍 Anderson paediatric laryngoscope in a personalised case to Dr Ivan Magill

This paediatric laryngoscope was modified by Dr. Sheila Anderson. It is designed with a smaller handle for easier use in children.

Anderson also developed the scalp vein needle, introduced paediatric op**te premedication and was a founding member of the Association of Paediatric Anaesthetics of Great Britain and Ireland.

📍 21 Portland Place, London, W1B 1PY
Open 10:00–16:00 Monday to Friday, entry is FREE!
(Link in bio)
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28/01/2025

If you’ve seen our story today, you’ll know that on this day in 1848, Hannah Greener was preparing to have her ingrown toenail removed. 😳

At home in Newcastle, Hannah inhaled chloroform from a cloth administered by her surgeon, Thomas Meggison. The operation began, but Meggison and his assistant noticed her flinch and decided to give her more chloroform. 💉

Sadly, she didn’t live through the toenail surgery, and died 3 minutes after receiving the chloroform anaesthetic.

Hannah became the first person to die from chloroform anaesthesia. Her death sparked debates about the safety of the drug. Is chloroform dangerous? Or was it administered wrong?

Conflicting arguments about chloroform continued throughout the century resulting in the Hyderabad Commission on Chloroform in 1889. After some long-winded debates, it was eventually proved in 1911 that chloroform could stop the heart.

📍 21 Portland Place, London, W1B 1PY
Open 10:00–16:00 Monday to Friday, entry is FREE!
(Link in bio)
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24/01/2025

Object in focus 🔍 Barton’s combined tongue clip and junker terminal, c1910s

This rather intimidating tongue clip was designed by Dr. G A H Barton around the 1910s. 😳

Created to assist anaesthetists during upper airway procedures, Barton intended for the clip to hold the tongue in place and keep the airway clear, allowing the anaesthetist to focus on monitoring the patient during an anaesthetic.

Swipe to read Barton’s pitch in the BMJ! ➡️

📷 1: Barton’s combined tongue clip and junker terminal, c1910s. The Anaesthesia Museum.
📷 2: The Medical School And The Hospital, The British Medical Journal. Vol. 2, No. 2608 (Dec. 24, 1910), pp. 1980-1982.

📍 21 Portland Place, London, W1B 1PY
Open 10:00–16:00 Monday to Friday, entry is FREE!
(Link in bio)
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22/01/2025

What is this funky looking thing? It’s Joseph Clover’s chloroform inhaler!

It was designed by Clover, a , in 1862. A year after inventing this inhaler, Clover also led an enquiry into the safety of chloroform where he recommended that a patient’s pulse should be monitored during anaesthesia. Before this, doctors had monitored patient’s breathing patterns, muscle movements and skin colour.

📷 Clover chloroform apparatus, Wellcome Collection c.1862. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

17/01/2025

Ever heard of the nightshades? 🌚🌿

Back in the day (think Roman times), Mandrake, a plant in the nightshade family, was used for pain relief 🌱💊. By the 1400s, the nightshade was mixed with o***m and henbane to sedate patients before surgery. Talk about old-school anaesthesia!

But wait... there’s folklore. Mandrake roots weren’t just considered medicinal—they were also thought to spiritually bring good fortune and health! 🍀

However there was a catch! Legend said, that upon being pulled from the ground, the root would scream so loud that anyone who heard it would die…💀

We have some white bryony root (a common substitute for mandrake) in our temporary exhibition kindly loaned by . Come and have a look… you might hear iMuseum of Cambridge Mandrake (Mandragora officinarum L.): flowering plant with separate fruit, seed and sectioned fruit. Coloured etching by M. Bouchard, 1772. Collectionortland Place, London, W1B 1PY
Open 10:00–16:00 Monday to Friday, entry is FREE! Temporary exhibition ends April 2025.

15/01/2025

Object in focus 🔍 Shipway’s modification of Kelly’s intratracheal ether insufflator, c1912

Robert Kelly designed an ether insufflator in 1912 - the first insufflator device in England.

What is an insufflator? Good question... insufflators deliver gaseous anaesthetics to a mask or cloth over a patient’s mouth and nose, this one was used specifically for ether vapour.

How did Kelly’s insufflator work? The doctor manually pumped air towards the ether or (sometimes chloroform) bottle, which then travelled through a thermos heated to 46.7° C. The air and vapour was then released to the cloth or mask for the patient to inhale.

Shortly after observing Kelly’s creation, Francis Shipway modified Kelly’s device to include an electric blower – Shipway’s modified insufflator graces our grid in today’s post!

📍 21 Portland Place, London, W1B 1PY
Open 10:00–16:00 Monday to Friday, entry is FREE!
(Link in bio)
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22/11/2024

Object in focus 🔎 Association of Anaesthetists Inaugural General Meeting Minutes, 1935

For week, we’re celebrating two and the made in the Association of Anaesthetist’s first General Meeting!

In the early 1900s, anaesthesia was not a widely recognised or respected branch of medicine. There was no proper training in anaesthesia and GPs often administered anaesthetics themselves.

This all started to change with Sir Ivan Magill who suggested introducing a diploma of anaesthesia in 1931. However, no organisation actually existed to carry Magill’s suggestion forward.

So in 1935, another Dr Henry Featherstone founded the Association of Anaesthetists, a body focused on supporting and representing the specialty of anaesthesia. In the Inaugoral General Meeting on 1 July 1935, Featherstone and 50 invited members decided on a series of objectives for the Association, one of which was helping to realise Magill’s idea to introduce of a diploma of anaesthesia.

Thanks to the efforts of Featherstone and Magill, in 1935 the first ever qualification in anaesthesia was introduced. Formal post-graduate training in the specialty was initiated and marked by an official Diploma in Anaesthetics, helping to raise the status of anaesthetists and ensure patients were safely tended to by trained professionals.

📍 21 Portland Place, London, W1B 1PY
Open 10:00–16:00 Monday to Friday, entry is FREE!

21/11/2024

Pharmaceutical company, Bayer & Co. started selling bottled he**in in the United States in 1898 as cough medicine.

It was advertised as ‘an excellent substitute for Codeine’ and as being helpful for relieving symptoms of bronchitis, pharyngitis and catarrh of the lungs. Bayer & Co. even recommended taking the powder dissolved in brandy or water.

The drug was soon found to be highly addictive and while patients could initially take much smaller doses of he**in compared to other medicines, like morphine, repeated use meant patients needed higher doses for it to be effective.

Addiction and recreational use of he**in became a rising issue so in 1924 the United States banned the production, sale and use of the drug through the He**in Act.

📷 Advertisement for Bayer drugs, 1899. Wellcome Collection

📍 21 Portland Place, London, W1B 1PY
Open 10:00–16:00 Monday to Friday, entry is FREE!
(Link in bio)
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07/11/2024

Object in focus 🔍 Katherine Lloyd William’s notebook, 1925

Katherine Lloyd-Williams (1896-1973) used this notebook while studying at the London School of Medicine for Women, where she gained a Bachelor in Medicine and a Bachelor in Surgery (MBBS) in 1926.

As a resident anaesthetist at the Royal Free Hospital, Lloyd Williams developed an interest in obstetric anaesthesia.

A true trailblazer, Lloyd Williams not only fought for women’s rights to study and practice medicine but also advocated for the use of spinal anaesthesia during caesarean sections based on her personal success using the technique.

📍 21 Portland Place, London, W1B 1PY
Open 10:00–16:00 Monday to Friday, entry is FREE!
(Link in bio)
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31/10/2024

Happy Halloween! We hope you’re in the spooky-spirit because we’re revealing one of our scariest looking objects… the mouth gag.

Mouth gags keep the mouth open during surgery. They were most commonly used in the 1800s when patients under chloroform clenched their jaws shut.

Anaesthetics often relax the muscles around the throat, sometimes obstructing the airway, so mouth gags were also used to clear access to the lungs.

Thanks to the invention of endotracheal tubes which are a much more effective way of keeping a patient’s trachea clear, mouth gags aren’t used so much today for airway management. However they are still used for mouth and throat surgery.

📍 21 Portland Place, London, W1B 1PY
Open 10:00–16:00 Monday to Friday, entry is FREE!
(Link in bio)

Address

21 Portland Place
London
W1B1PY

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 4pm
Tuesday	10am - 4pm
Wednesday	10am - 4pm
Thursday	10am - 4pm
Friday	10am - 4pm

Telephone

02076311650

Website

https://linktr.ee/anaesthesiamuseum

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Videos

Calling all quirky museum lovers... this hidden gem is a must-add to your bucket list! Located at 21 Portland Place, the Anaesthesia Museum tracks the weird and wonderful history of pain medicine, featuring old amputation kits, a witch bottle and a tooth cure charm. 📍 21 Portland Place, London, W1B 1PY Open 10 am – 4 pm Monday to Friday, entry is FREE!

The Heritage Centre sends a big thank you to all #NHS staff as the National Health Service officially turns 76 today!

Anaesthesia Museum COVID-19 Oral Histories Animation

For our current exhibition, Going Viral: Contagion, Pestilence and Pandemics, we commissioned a short film that would re-imagined our COVID-19 oral histories in an engaging & emotive way. The brilliant people at Squeaky Pedal did just that! 👏 Check out this snippet. You can view the full film in the museum. 📺👀

It’s #WorldMusicDay! 🎶 If you work in operating rooms, do you listen to music? If you had the choice, what would your ideal OR playlist include? Let us know in the comments! 👇

#DYK that di-ethyl ether, the agent used in the first successful public demonstration of anaesthesia 1846, was synthesised in the *13th century*? Although there were reports of it producing pain relief & anaesthesia, not much was done with it for centuries... #WednesdayWisdom

Wishing everyone a happy #WorldAnaesthesiaDay today!! 🥳 We made you a little video for this very special occasion 🎥 🍿 Find out about what happened on 16 October 1846 & the events that followed... #histmed

Got a burning question about the history of #anaesthesia? Want to find out about working in a medical #museum? Ask us this Wednesday on #AskACuratorDay! 🙌 Leave your question in the comments or @ us on Wednesday - we'll be answering 9:30-10:00 & 15:00-16:00. See you there!

It’s #WorldMusicDay and we have an important question... 🎶 Who do you think should get to choose the tunes in the operating theatre – the #anaesthetist or the #surgeon? Thoughts?! The Royal College of Anaesthetists - RCoA History of Anaesthesia Society The Geoffrey Kaye Museum of Anaesthetic History Surgeons' Hall Museums The Royal College of Surgeons of England

A Silver Lining Through the Dark Clouds Shining

'A Silver Lining Through the Dark Clouds Shining: The Development of Anaesthesia During the First World War' is now open! The display looks at the invention of the Boyle machine, a revolutionary piece of equipment developed during World War One and which is still used today. But was it really invented by Henry Boyle, or was it actually created by another doctor, Geoffrey Marshall, weeks before Boyle published his designs? Come to the exhibition to find out more...

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Our Story

The Anaesthesia Heritage Centre at the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland was founded from a donation by A Charles King but has since embraced numerous contributions. The collection encompasses the entire history of anaesthesia, from Morton's demonstration of ether inhalation in 1846 to modern anaesthetic machines and appliances still in use today. An archive and library provide excellent facilities for research into the history of anaesthesia. Opening Hours: Monday (except bank holidays), Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 10:00-16:00 We highly recommend that visitors make an appointment. Free admission Tube stations: Oxford Circus, Regents Park, Great Portland Street Train stations: Euston, St Pancras/ King's Cross Buses: 7, 8, 10, 18, 25, 27, 30, 55, 73, 88, 98, 176, 205, 553, C2 For more information visit: http://www.aagbi.org/education/heritage-centre