Working from home

“That the true idea of life existed in the mind of John Hunter I do not entertain the least doubt…”

William Coleridge

This mantra seem to be very 2020, but it is not a new concept. John Hunter the 18th Century scientist, anatomist and surgeon lived in this large house at 28 Leicester Square, London. The house contained his opulent residential apartments as well as a conjoined working space. In this modified home he set up dissecting rooms and a pop up anatomy school. Here he is said to have received thousands of bodies, including the the famous Irish Giant. Here he also prepared the first dissection of the pregnant female and described the function of the placenta. His wife Anne, was a well known socialite. She was famous for soirees held regularly at Leicester Square. She was particularly renowned for her extensive floral decorations, possibly to mask the smell from the non refrigerated dissecting rooms down the corridor. This juxaposition of family home and working anatomical school was well known in contemporaneous London. The residence is said to be the inspiration for the novel Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. #mancaveforsurgeons #letsmakelemonade