Story Guide and Museum Content

The museum covers the following topics and you will find distinct areas dedicated to each one:

  • Diagnosis Alley: how diseases spread in the past and the impact of the plague
  • Autopsy: the origins and development of the study of human anatomy and pathology
  • Theories: covering the four humours, religion, and misma
  • Sexual Health: personal grooming, prophylactics, STIs, and human anatomy [Please note this area is separated from the main galleries by a door.]
  • Breakthroughs: major moments in medical history
  • Barber Surgery: the origins of surgery and early surgical practices
  • Surgical Advances: improvements in surgical techniques and tools
  • Housing and Hygiene: including both personal hygiene and public health
  • Magical Medicine: looking at alchemy, witchcraft, and representations in popular culture
  • Skeletal Science: what skeletal remains tell us about health and disease in the past
  • Quack Medicine: a wide-variety of quacks, hoaxes, and con-artists throughout history
  • Medicinal Plants: how plants have been used as treatments in medicine
  • Food: covering food adulteration, preservation methods, nutritional needs, etc
  • Pandemics: a visual installation on the impacts of major pandemics in history

In order to help prepare your school visit to Sick to Death, below is a photo tour of the museum layout, along with notes on the content covered in each section of the museum. If you have more questions, please get in touch and we will do our best to help you prepare for your visit.

  • A pale sandstone church with a large tower, arched windows, on a street junction. There is a blue clock on one face of the tower, a sign that says Sick to Death in two of the arches visible on the tower, and some cars stopped at traffic lights. 
    St Michael’s Church, where Sick to Death is located, as seen if walking up from the Little Roodee carpark via Grosvenor Street. 
  • A stone building, on a street corner, with five steps leading up to a floor level with the entrance door. There are signs that read Sick to Death on multiple walls of the building facing in different directions. A stoplight is visible to the right of the building, for a street junction. 
    The stairs from Bridge Street. 
  • A zoomed out view of a covered stone area, with arches overhead. There is a wooden ‘toilet’ to the left of the area and a set of stocks to the right. You can see, lit from behind, the reversed sign text that says Sick to Death, at the top of the central stone arch. Beyond this area is a paved street with trees and shops. 
    The covered area outside the front doors of Sick to Death. 
  • The entrance to a stone building tower, with six steps and a central handrail, leading up to a higher level floor. The arch over the stairs has a sign that reads Sick to Death. To the right is a crosswalk with buttons. To the left is a street. 
    The stairs and handrail from Pepper Street. 
  • A wooden counter area, with a till and card machine. It is in a very busy room with lots of set dressing so it looks like an old apothecary or magical bookshop. On the front of the wooden counter is a sign with Ticket Price and some other notices. 
    The front desk of Sick to Death, where you will be greeted by the host of your visit. 
  • A very busy room with lots of set dressing so it looks like an old apothecary or magical bookshop, there are wooden cabinets with the shelves stocked in various items. There is a plain diamond leaded glass window on the right, with more stock on the counter below it. 
    The shop area, which can be used to wait in, while entry is staggered for groups of students as they enter the museum. 
  • A dramatically lit and set dressed area of a stone wall of a church to look like a graveyard with a plague cart, a skeleton in a coffin, a monk with a skull’s face and a religious podium with a book on it. There is a rope across the front of the display. 
    The introduction to the museum is given by our resident monk, who will set the scene for visiting 17th century Chester during a plague outbreak. There is a transcript available in the room.
  • A dark room with a spot light over a set of double doors, which are arch shaped. They say on them Sick to Death: The Story of Medicine and there are images of skeletons and the grim reaper. To the sides of the room, in the darker lit areas are gravestones and other props. 
    The double doors to enter the next area of the museum, after the introduction has finished. 
  • A darkly lit street, with green spot lights, showing old mock Tudor style buildings, washing hanging on a line, and a stone tiled floor. 
    Diagnosis Alley, key topics: understandings of illness and disease in the past, common carriers of disease, unhygienic practices, the Black Death, the impact of global trade on disease spread, plague doctors. 
  • A sign, illuminated by a UV torch with a circular spread, that reads: Diagnosis Alley and then proceeds to welcome visitors and explain about the street. 
    Diagnosis Alley: UV torches are provided to illuminate the alley, read the information panels, and to spot hidden messages and signs of disease! 
  • A darkly lit street, with blue spot lights, showing old mock Tudor style buildings, with reflective windows, and tattered fabric hanging from the end of the street from an archway. 
    Diagnosis Alley: There is written information on both sides of the alley, in addition to immersive interactives. 
  • A darkly lit street, with green spot lights, showing old mock Tudor style buildings, washing hanging on a line, and a stone tiled floor. There are two tables to the left, with objects on them that you can’t make out in the dark. 
    Diagnosis Alley: The view back down the alley area. 
  • A dark area, sort of a lobby, with red light. There are three doors. The two on the left are labelled as toilets, one is disabled, the furthest right door labelled for staff only.
    Toilets: At the end of Diagnosis Alley are two toilets, one disabled, and a small waiting area.
  • A sort of lobby or vestibule area, with red light, to the left is a door labeled staff only. The main focus is a plinko style game, called The Game of Death, and to its right a large lifesize model of a man, hanging suspended from ropes, his abdomen open and internal organs spilling out. It is graphic in its detail. To the further right is an open doorway to the next room that has clear plastic sheet strips over it.
    The Hanging Man: Outside of the toilers in the waiting area is an interpretation of Vesalius’ hanging man.
  • A printed board on a black wall with different diseases highlighted in various colours and fonts. Under each disease is a description about how a person might have died from that particular disease: dysentry, bubonic plague, smallpox, cholera, typhoid, and old age. To the right is just visible a game board.
    The Game of Death: Outside of the toilets in the waiting area is a game that gives information about some of the most deadly diseases throughout history.
  • A sort of lobby or vestibule area, with red light, that shows clear plastic sheeting strips to the left through which is another room that appears mostly white tiles. Centred in the frame is a swing door with a push handle that reads in 'graffiti' style writing: Not keen on Autopsy? This way.
    Bypass: There is an alternative route through this door, should anyone want to avoid the Autopsy section, though the Autopsy section is no more graphic than the model of Vesalius’ hanging man in this bypass area. Please be careful if using the bypass door and open it gently, to avoid anyone who may be standing in the area behind it.
  • A white tiled room with dark lighting and spots of red and blue light. There are metal boards with written information on the walls, including some illustrations. There is a metal trolley and a metal table, with some clipboards and other props on it. In the centre of the room is a lifesize model of a cadaver wearing polka dot bloomers, with an open chest cavity, on a white morgue slab.
    Autopsy, key topics: Erasistratus, Herophilus and the founding of human anatomy study and theorhetical debates; Galen and humoural theory and the effects on medical science; Christianity and its impacts; the Renaissance, dissections, Morgagni; changing religious attitudes and approvals; Vesalius; criminals and cadavers, advances in the scientific method, the impact of the church; Great Britain and the Murder Act, legalised dissection, the Royal College of Surgeons; Knox. Burke and Hare, the Anatomy Act; formalised training, Virchow, microscopy, causes of disease, and modern post-mortems.
  • A metal table, in red light, with a basket holding fake fruit and a tin of Heinz beans. To the right on the table are cutout shapes of cartoon organs, like a lung and a heart. There is a clipboard with a black cover below, that says 'Lightest' with the drawing of a feather.
    Autopsy: There are hands-on interactive games about autopsy procedures and internal anatomy, as well as costumed dress-up, etc.
  • A dark room with red light. On a white morgue slab is a lifesize human cadaver prop wearing polka dot bloomers, with an open chest cavity. On the wall at the 'feet' end is a TV with two options: Quiz and Videos. In the room around are metal plates on the wall with information written on them and metal tables with props.
    Autopsy: There is a TV in Autopsy, which features both videos and an interactive game based on ‘Colin’ the prop cadaver in the centre of the room.
  • A TV screen that says 'Grave Operations' and explains how a quiz game will work, based on his autopsy report (on the screen) and his symptoms. There are options to go Home, Back, and Start.
    Autopsy: The lifesize prop cadaver ‘Colin’ has organs that display different types of illness and disease. Three of his organs are removeable and fully handle-able.
  • A TV screen that says 'Videos' below which are six tiles, showing stills from videos. There are people in historical costumes and settings and the videos are labelled: Erisostatus and Herophilus, Galen, Andreas Vesalius, Giovanni Battista Morgagni, Dr. Robert Knox, Rudolf Carl Virchow.
    Autopsy: There are six videos to watch that highlight key facts of various important figures from medical history. The videos are between 1:30 and 3:00 minutes each. These videos are subtitled.
  • A brick effect wall with old fashioned style parchment boards with written information on them. There are four school style lockers, in red, green, yellow, and black. Each is filled with more parchment style boards and some props.
    Theories: The Four Humours, key topics: origins, maintaining balance, how the theory became dominant, the associated traits of each humour.
  • A metal trolley with a black book on it that explains how a matching game works. Beside which are parchment coloured tiles, the topmost which says Gall Bladder and has an black and white line drawing illustration on it.
    Theories: The Four Humours: This area includes an interactive matching game to learn the associated traits of each humour.
  • A view of a brick style wall inside that has various styles of interpretation board on it, but all slightly old fashioned like parchment or a Victorian notice poster. The title says Theories: Miasma. There is also a black area labelled Smell Me in large letters with an illustration of a nose and objects on the wooden countertop above. There is a foldout chair to the right of the Smell Me area and large windows even further behind to the right.
    Theories: Miasma, key topics: theories about pollution and ‘bad air’ as causes of disease and good scents as a way to combat or cure, pomanders and herbs; long-term harmful impacts of incorrect theories, the Great Stink and the industrial age; Florence Nightengale
  • A wooden countertop with various jars and bottles on it, different props like a miniature bin, and some 'lift the lid' panels that say 'I smell like...'
    Theories: Miasma: In this section there are interactive sniff elements to invoke the theory of ‘bad air’.
  • A stone wall of a church, with religious carvings to the right on the longest wall in view, featuring prayers, commandments, etc. Below are boards that discuss Disease as Punishment and Places of Healing. In the corner to the left is a mannequin dressed as a monk and an alter covered in gold fabric, with props on top.
    Theories: Religion, key topics: patron saints, separation of science and religion, the first hospitals; ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome; spiritual explanations for causes of disease, prayer as treatment, and religious figures as doctors.
  • A large zoomed out photo of the inside of a church, there are arching stoneworks and a large stained glass window. To the left is an area with tattered bloody fabric hanging from a rope. To the right is a red velvet covered iron gate and a neon sign that says 'Mature Content' as well as a Fire exit sign. In the distance in a corner is a mannequin of a monk and an alter.
    This is the back area of the church and has the most open space, before the exhibits will narrow again.
  • A brick effect wall with an iron gate in it that's covered in red velvet. To the left is a neon style sign that says Mature Content. There is also a Fire Exit sign. To the sign is a chair against a stone wall. Visible to the extreme left is a different area of the museum about Miasmas.
    Sexual Health, key topics: STIs, personal grooming, the contraceptive pill, condoms, anatomy, Fallopio, Realdo, Vesalium, Etienne, Helen O’Connell. There are also interactives in the form of condoms from different eras, ‘Woolly Willies’, and a TV that can either feature themed arcade-style games or historical video PSAs.
  • A brick effect wall with lots of circular 'blue plaques' across the top on various topics like vaccines, x-rays, and antiviral drugs. Below to the left is a counter with props on it, labelled Optical Technology. Then along the all are various clipboards and a lightbox and x-ray slides in a wooden folder.
    Medical Breakthroughs, key topics: vaccines, Jenner, germ theory, Pasteur, Lister, Koch, antiseptic, X-ray, Rontgen, antibiotics, Fleming, organ transplants, modern advances, Hooke, microscopes, diagnostic techniques, cells. T
  • A brick effect wall with lots of circular 'blue plaques' across the top on various topics like vaccines, x-rays, and antiviral drugs. Below to the left is a counter with props on it. Then along the all are various clipboards and a lightbox and x-ray slides in a wooden folder. To the right, now ahead of this area, are strips of tattered fabric covered in fake blood hanging from a rope.
    Medical Breakthroughs: This area also has opportunities to try out different diagnostic tools, such as microscopes, x-ray films, BP cuffs, etc.
  • A large old fashioned wooden chair, covered in blood and dirt. There is also fake blood on the beamed walls behind the chair. To the left is writing on a door about Barber Surgeons. To the right is a basket on a small table. In front of shot hanging down are fake blood covered strips of fabric.
    Barber Surgery: The barber surgeon’s chair is more than just a photo op. The information on the door to your left walks you through how to perform some barber surgery techniques! In the basket to the right you will find an apron, fake tools, and even wounds you can strap on to your ‘patient’.
  • Three large boards covered in writing and pictures, between three wooden beams. There are depictions of surgery, skulls and tools. To the right are fake blood covered strips of fabric and to the left a blood apron hug up.
    Barber Surgery, key topics: Christianity & surgery, barbers and surgeons, theories (or lack therof) about the causes of disease, early (pre-historic) surgery, ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, risks of surgery in the past. Interactive: barber chair.
  • Three sections on a black wall, each marked by an interpretation board covered in text and images. From right to left are 'The steady progress of surgical science', 'surgery today', and then a board broken into three each featuring a different person, with headphones below. To the left of that is a case with a glass front embedded into the wall.
    Surgical Advances, key topics: the renaissance, Paré, battlefield surgery, Hunter, science & surgery, hospitals & infirmaries, Liston, WWI & Gillies, 20th century advances.
  • A hallway with various boards on the wall showing different types of surgical techniques or objects. On a counter below are different prop body parts, including a head, arm, and legs. To the bottom left is a wooden crate with objects in. At the end of the hallway area is a board in the shape of a feminine silhouette labelled Women in Science.
    Surgical Advances, key topics: barber/ surgeon’s tools, examples of procedures: trepanation, arrow removal, sutures, gangrene, war wounds, and amputations; blood-loss & techniques to combat, pain relief & anasthetics, infections & methods to combat (e.g. sanitation, hand-washing, sterilisation, antibiotics); women in medicine – changes over time, exclusion/inclusion, James Barry, the Enabling Act.
  • A glass-fronted white case, set into a black wall. There are three shelves, each featuring different surgical tools. To the right of the case is a folder on the wall holding papers, labelled audio transcripts and to the right of that a board with writing on it and headphones attached to the wall.
    Key topics: Galen, Wiseman, Anderson – Asclepius, gladiators, King Charles and Civil War, women in medicine. Artefact and replica surgical instruments: Roman, 17th/18th century, 19th/20th century. This section has headphones to listen to narrated ‘first person style’ accounts of surgery and practising medicine.
  • A large sign that says Guess The Organ! Above the sign are four cubbies with openings and above those are 'lift the flap' style signs with handles.
    Surgical Advances: A hands-on ‘guess the organ’ mystery box game where you can feel organ replicas and try identify them based on the hints above.
  • A hallway with various boards on the wall showing different topics like infection and pain relief. On a counter below are different prop body parts, including a head, arm, and legs. The end of the hall from this direction is a stone wall, with a rope across an opening with strips of fabric hanging down from it.
    Surgical Advances: This area follows on from Barber Surgery and is formed of a wide hallway.
  • A wide angled photo of a covered street with arches and pillars and Tudor style beams. There are strips of fabric hanging down and signs about Housing and Hygiene, Roman Chester, and more that are just out of sight.
    Housing and Hygiene, key topics: living conditions, public health, quarantine laws, industrialisation & local health boards, personal hygiene & communicable diseases presented within a recreation of Chester’s rows.
  • A mock-up of a covered street, with black frames windows, painted window shutters with handles, old fashioned doors, and at the end a more open and light area, with toilet seats on the wall, vertically.
    Housing and Hygiene: Look through the windows of Chester’s rows and behind shutters to read more about health and hygiene in the past.
  • A white tiled wall with wooden toilet seats hung vertically on it, with handles hanging down on ropes. To the right is a large black and while photo of a man. There is a large parchment style sign that says Cholera in large letters, with lots of text below.
    Housing and Hyigene, key topics: cholera & John Snow, water supplies and plumbing. This wall features toilet seat lids that can be lifted using cistern pulleys to reveal hidden facts.
  • An area made up to look like two outhouse/latrine seats in a wooden bench, behind which is a brick or stone effect wall. The area is covered in signage in the style of different eras of history and there are lots of props on the wooden counter, as well as information on the front of the latrine area.
    Housing and Hygiene, key topics: latrines and sanitation, government interventions. This section also features a Poo (True) or False game about toilet hygiene habits throughout history.
  • A small counter area, with a graphic of a wheel at the bottom with different illustrations circling it. Above on the wooden counter are five small pots and hanging above them, back-lit are five glass beakers filled with different colours of liquid. To the left is a fold out chair.
    Housing and Hygiene, key topics: uroscopy. Including an opportunity to ‘diagnose’ various ailments through scent boxes!
  • A stone effect area with a large low surface on which there are many props of bones. Up on the angled walls behind are various boards with writing on them. Floating in the air above is a colourful skull hologram graphic.
    Skeletal Science, key topics: diseases and changes to skeleton/bones, early evidence for surgery and medical treatments.
  • A stone effect wall, inside, to the left is a black case labelled Science in Action and inside, in the dark behind glass, is a mandible. To the right is a sign that says Skeletal Science featuring text and a large image of a skull.
    Skeletal Science, key topics: modern science in action to study the people and events from the past.
  • A wooden dress with small doors and drawes, some open. Above is a large sign that says The Magic of Medicine, with an oversized book propped up and open on the dresser top. To the right in the background is a white wall covered in toilet seat lids and to the left in the background is a wall of square image tiles.
    Magical Medicine, key topics: beliefs in the past – witchcraft, alchemy, potions, Flamel, Culpepper, animal magic, plant use, spells & incantations. Each of the doors and drawers can be open to read more and see props associated with each topic.
  • A large wall with eight columns and six rows of different sized square and rectangular tiles, all with different images, photos, titles, and topics. The largest takes up the space of six smaller square tiles and says 'Quackey' in large letters.
    Wall of Quacks, key topics: bloodletting, curative touch, snake oil, radioactive medicine, animal parts as medicine, electricity as treatment.
  • A countertop area made to look up like a greenhouse or plant shop, with lots of greenery, fake plants, and props on display. Along the front of the counter, where you would have cupboard fronts there is information writtena long graphic printed leaves on a white background. In the background to the right is a stone wall effect area with skeletal science on display.
    Medicinal plants, key topics: morphine, quinine, Edward Stone, penicillin, herbal remedies.
  • A large dining table with a lace tablecloth covered in various props like silver cloches, jars, plates, bowl of fruit, etc. In the background to the right is a smaller wooden table with some bowls and dry good dispensers on it.
    Food, key topics: scurvy, botulism, adulteration and safety oversight, arenic, dysentry.
  • A false brick fireplace, with dried garlic, herbs, and other things hanging from the top. Below are instructions for a five step process written on an old parchment style board. Below that is a small wooden table with dry goods dispensers filled with different coloured things and wooden bowls, a basket, and a stone pestle and mortar.
    Within the plant and food area there is a pomander station, which includes different types of dried flowers and herbs, along with a pestle and mortar, and small bags that can be filled to ‘make your own pomander’ to take home with you to ward of the miasmas you may encounter along the way!
  • A small wooden table with dry goods dispensers filled with different coloured dried herbs, yellow, blue, and red and wooden bowls, a basket with small tea bags in it, and a stone pestle and mortar. There is also a warning sign not to eat the ingredients.
    The pomander station.
  • A wide angle photo of the inside of a church with large beamed ceiling, a false Tudor style street scene, a large art installation on a wall featuring oversized microbes, various tables, counters, and props and boards with writing on.
    The last sections of the museum are actually located in the front of the church and again has more open space, which is useful for gathering groups together and waiting before exiting.
  • A large black wall, within the arch of a stone wall, featuring large oversized colourful models of microorganisms, with different coloured lines going from each towards the bottom of the wall. In front of the wall is a lace table-cloth covered table, walls dividing the main open space, and countertops covered in various props and objects. To the right is a false Tudor style row of houses.
    Wall of Plagues: This large art installation features oversized bacteria and viruses responsible for some of the worst pandemics in history, along with figures of estimated death tolls.
  • A view looking up at the beamed ceiling of a stone church. On a balcony within an arched opening to a tower is a puppet of a skeletal death or grim reaper like figure.
    While you’re in Sick to Death, don’t forget to look up! St. Michael’s displays beautiful medieval and Victorian architecture, as well as some other little surprises.
  • A false stone wall with two black curtains hung overa doorway. To the right is a large model of a plague doctor holding up a lantern and resting on a staff. To the left is part of a wall covered in square image tiles and a small table with a board game style surface.
    The curtains here lead back to the front desk and museum shop. Exit from the museum is through the same door you entered, back onto the Rows.

The museum is regularly being updated and while we will endeavour to keep this photo tour updated as well, some areas may look slightly different during your visit to how they appear here.