‘The Herb Garret’s Herbal’ - a look back into herbal medicine in London - exhibition piece

Student - Suraby Pushpaharan

Supervisor - The Old Operating Theater

My product is a herbal.

An herbal book describes herbs or other plants, including their medicinal properties. My herbal specifically references the plants used by the apothecaries in the Herb Garret of St Thomas' Church, which used to be part of Old St Thomas' Hospital. This Herb Garret was used to dry and store herbs for patients’ medicines, and the Apothecary’s job was to make up this prescription using this stock of herbs. The book, therefore, recreates something that may have been used by both apothecaries as a reference and by the Victorian public. Its contents are heavily influenced by a herbal of that time named ‘The English Physician’ by apothecary and physician Nicholas Culpeper who believed that the public should have access to these remedies.

This book will sit in ‘The Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret’ in the original timber framed Garret where some of these herbs are on display. It will act as a source of information for visitors to learn more about the presented herbs. Ranging from poisons to remedies that we still use today, will a science communication student, in years to come, create another ‘book of old medicines’ gasping at the poisons we may be putting in our body today?