A Victorian Mummy Unrolling Demonstration – The Old Operating Theatre, London

An evening in London’s Old Operating Theatre Museum where I observe a recreation of a Victorian mummy unrolling. Unexpected, unique and very educational!

You Went To What Now?

A Victorian mummy unrolling! Maybe you’ve heard of it before, maybe not. But it’s fairly self-explanatory, if a bit macabre. Victorians (the practice was mostly but not entirely confined to them) had a different relationship than we do with death. They were very into mourning, mementoes of their deceased loved ones, and various other practices. One of the slightly odder ones is the phenomenon of public and private mummy unrollings. Sometimes they would take place in a theatre, sometimes in a private home. What was consistent was the presence of a genuine Egyptian mummified body, which would be slowly uncovered in a pseudo-scientific piece of showmanship. A little bit exotic. A little bit thrilling. And very ethically dodgy.

Egyptologist John J. Johnston recreated this peculiar spectacle recently at the Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret near London Bridge. Something this unusual and intriguing is of course right up my street. I thus went out of my way to procure tickets to the sold-out evening. I’ve seen online that this is not Johnston’s first modern mummy unrolling, but he is certainly adept at picking suitable locations. The former one took place at St Bart’s Pathology Museum, and this one in the old operating theatre itself – at 1822 the oldest surviving one in Europe. Audience members had the chance to enjoy a drink first amongst the medicinal plants and implements of the museum, before heading through to sit in the galleries overlooking the operating table.

Egyptomania And Mummified Aristocrats

Johnston is an excellent showman, and also makes a convincingly dapper Victorian presenter. He is in character through the mummy unwrapping itself, and then leads a Q&A as himself. He is extremely knowledgeable, as the evening plays to his overlapping interests in the late-Ptolemaic/Roman period and Egyptomania itself. And he packs a lot of educational information into the recreation (on historic mummy unwrappings, the fate of the 10th Duke of Hamilton, and ‘mummy brown‘ paint). That so much of this is appalling to our modern sensibilities shows how much thinking has changed. Sure, the frisson of a mummy being unveiled still drew a crowd, but in the safe and sanitised knowledge that it’s not real, and no mummies were harmed in the making.

During the Q&A Johnston talked about the enduring power of Egyptomania. Part of the reason for this event, after all, is the centenary of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. Arguably Egyptomania dates back further to Napoleon’s incursion into Egypt. But either way the public interest in Ancient Egypt has been a constant for a century or more. Yet the culture that was preserved from those ancient times was the culture of the elite ruling class. Johnston drew the analogy of extrapolating about our contemporary culture from the death and funeral of Elizabeth II. As a once-aspiring archaeologist who has been interested in ancient cultures for a long time, it was an interest perspective brought to life by Johnston’s erudite and lively delivery.

This was a one off at the Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garrett, but I do urge you to look at their events programme. They have a lot on and make great use of their unique space. As for the mummy unrolling, I am so glad I could get tickets, it was a perfect and memorable blend between talk and theatre, education and entertainment.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 4/5