The Doctor Who Shocked Victorian Britain
After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal
History Hit
4.7 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 21 May 2026
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What lurks behind the door of Dr. Kahn's Grand Anatomical Museum in Victorian London?
Step inside and find out what shocked the public (and medical establishment) of the 19th century Britain so much, that it was eventually forced to close.
To take you there today, Anthony is joined by guest co-host Cat Irving, Human Remains Conservator at Surgeons’ Hall in Edinburgh.
Edited by Anna Brant and Tim Arstall. Produced by Stuart Beckwith. Senior Producer is Freddy Chick.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Rotting flesh, blackened limbs, genitals ravaged by disease. |
| 0:10.0 | Behind a discreet doorway on Victorian London's Oxford Street, visitors stepped into a world of wax. |
| 0:19.0 | Glass cases revealed bodies frozen in decay, skin blistered, eyes hollow, |
| 0:25.3 | limbs contorted by disease. But it would all end in scandal for Dr. Khan and his museum. |
| 0:32.6 | But was this a place of medicine or of theatre? A moral lesson or an attraction built on fear and shame. |
| 0:41.1 | As respectable gentlemen filed past these grotesque displays, |
| 0:46.7 | they're forced to confront not only the fragility of the body, |
| 0:49.7 | but the uneasy question, is this education or exploitation? After dark, listeners and viewers, we are going to take you right to the heart of 315 Oxford Street. |
| 1:29.3 | It's the middle of the 19th century. You're going to be immersed in this bizarre, |
| 1:31.3 | wonderful, questionable world of Dr. Khan's |
| 1:35.3 | anatomical museum. |
| 1:37.3 | But it is so bizarre, so strange, so horrifying to some extent, |
| 1:42.3 | that I am not doing this alone. And because Maddie is |
| 1:45.3 | currently collecting samples in the Andes samples of what nobody knows, I have decided that the |
| 1:50.8 | only person to help me through this bizarre world of anatomy is, of course, Kat Irving, |
| 1:58.0 | human remains conservator at Surgeons Hall in Edinburgh. Kat, you are my guest |
| 2:04.4 | co-host on After Dark for the next few weeks. Hello, it's wonderful to be here. I feel like, |
| 2:09.0 | I feel like I've gone through the looking glass. Yes, now you're part of the, part of the machine. |
| 2:13.6 | Listen, if you're listening or watching these episodes on YouTube or wherever you get your |
| 2:16.7 | podcasts, get cozy, turn the volume up on your speakers or on your earphones, whatever it is, because these are really Kat's histories are immersive. We are going to be going to some very strange corners of the past. And this is why when I knew that we were looking for guest co-hosts while Maddie was off, Cat was top of my list. I was like, we need to have Cat in because what we were about to discuss and what we have |
| 2:38.1 | been discussing with Kat, sure, the previous episodes, you can go back and look at those. |
| 2:42.2 | It will give you a taste of what is to come. And this particular history is bizarre in the best |
... |
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