Thackray Museum of Medicine is one of the UK’s leading medical museums and the only one of its kind in the north of England.
Housed in the former Leeds Union Workhouse (Grade II listed), the Thackray Medical Museum was established in 1997 to increase public awareness of medical treatments, research, innovation and developments. With its origins in a small family-run chemist shop, the museum is home to one of the most significant collections of its kind in the world, caring for over 50,000 objects and some 26,000 written works covering all aspects of the history of medicine.
The museum is reopening its 11 galleries in 2021 following a multimillion-pound redevelopment. Visitors will be able to follow the story of medicine as they wander through the grimy streets of Victorian Leeds, watch gruesome operations taking place in the 19th-centruy operating theatre, visit a 70’s style sexual health clinic and discover the medical innovations that changed the world.