Thackray Museum of Medicine
Creative Tourist
The Thackray Museum of Medicine has a fascinating history. The building itself is the former Leeds Union Workhouse which once housed the poor and homeless people of the city, and later incorporated an infirmary for the sick before then later becoming a fully-fledged hospital in 1925.
In the 1990s it was deemed to be no longer fit for modern medicine and converted into a museum by Paul Thackray, grandson of Charles Thackray who had grown a small family-run chemist shop in Great George Street (Leeds) during the 1900s into a major medical supply firm, supplying drugs and medical instruments and equipment across the world.
Today, the Thackray Medical Museum provides visitors with a fascinating account of the history of medicine and healthcare through its diverse programme of hands-on exhibitions, talks, workshops, and objects selected from the collection of 47,000 items of historical medical equipment that it holds. Following a £4.1million redevelopment to the museum, the 11 new galleries reveal the medical innovations that have changed our lives.
