Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds to reopen after £4m refit

A museum's grand reopening following a £4m redevelopment is finally set to go ahead after a 10-month delay.

The Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds charts the history of disease and the development of treatments.

Covid restrictions meant visitors were unable to see 11 new galleries added to the attraction, which is set in a former workhouse that became part of the city's St James's Hospital.

It will finally open its doors on 17 May as lockdown regulations are eased.

Chief executive Nat Edwards said said the musuem highlighted the "immense ingenuity that humanity has had in the face of what sometimes seems impossible challenges and we've all been through a bit of that recently."

The new galleries tell the story of health care, from herbal remedies in apothecaries to genetically modified medicine.

Displays include recreated Victorian streets and a 19th-century operating theatre.

The museum is named after Charles Thackray, who developed his family-run chemist in Great George Street into a medical supply firm.

The business was sold to a multi-national company in 1990 and a trust began to develop the musuem's collection. It first opened in 1997.

A temporary centre at the museum was even used to give the Covid-19 vaccine to hundreds of care home and or social care workers.

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