Leeds Medical Museum and York

A couple of weeks ago I went on a short getaway with my family to Leeds and York. To be completely honest, I didn't have that great a time as I was feeling very ill - worse than I've been in months - so I found it hard to relax and enjoy myself. The things we did were fun, but my head was just in an extremely bad place.

On the first day we visited Thackray Museum, otherwise known as the Leeds Medical Museum. I'd been there before on a very enjoyable, memorable school trip a few years ago, so it was wonderful to go again. Although perhaps not for the fainthearted, the history of medicine and surgery is very fascinating, not to mention gruesome - and Thackray touches on it in great detail from Medieval times, until very recent modern day.
Another amazing part of the museum is the extremely life-like, realistic Victorian street. My senses were almost bombarded by the amount of detail put into giving it verisimilitude; it was dark, dingy, filthy, and even smelt strongly of a Victorian street! Be warned though, the realism is sometimes quite terrifying, and they spare no grisly details in constructing the bloodied wax models! I've seen at least three people scared of the models, and I'm pretty sure my brother was traumatised. ;)

 

There was a shop there that I loved, called Duttons for Buttons - I want to go there again! It was very quaint and had three floors of haberdashery, and many things in stock that you most likely won't find in the usual sewing shops. I got some antique glass buttons from the 1930s, some pretty lace, and an embroidery hoop for future use. To give you an idea how sweet the shop was, I heard a lady that worked there exclaim: "Oh crumbs, I forgot your hat pin!" to another lady. I'm pretty certain I want to live in that shop alone!