ABSTRACT

In eulogy to Hunter, Vicq d'Azyr, who would have been familiar with the story of how the Great Windmill Street Anatomy Theatre and Museum came into being, makes reference to this history. The plan to create a combined domestic dwelling, anatomy theatre and museum in the centre of London required strength of vision and an especially assertive confidence. For Hunter, a great school of anatomy would have illustrated just such a 'publick work of real magnificence', and, accompanied by his extensive library and museum, furnished an exemplary centre of calculation. Within social class and occupation crowded and transitional city, Hunter's house stops just short of the quieter and leafier newly built areas of Westminster and is located, quite deliberately, around one the busiest commercial districts. The Rate Books for the Parish of St James's show that Hunter paid more than his neighbours, presumably due to the size of his house and museum.