The Operating Theatre (operating or emergency room) is found in the roof space of an English Baroque Church. At first glance this placement seems bizarre. But it makes more sense when it is realised that the wards of the South Wing of St. Thomas's Hospital were built around St. Thomas's Church. Dorcas was the women's surgical ward. Before 1822, the women were operated on in the ward - this must have caused some considerable distress. In 1815 the Apothecary's Act, which required apprentice apothecaries to attend at public hospitals, meant that hordes of students poured in to watch operations.