About
East Grinstead Museum tells the story of a West Sussex market town that played an extraordinary role in the history of modern medicine. Set in East Court, a Victorian mansion in the town centre, the museum combines local and social history with the remarkable story of the Queen Victoria Hospital and the pioneering plastic surgery carried out there during and after the Second World War.
The hospital's fame derives from Sir Archibald McIndoe, a New Zealand-born plastic and reconstructive surgeon who established a burns and reconstructive surgery unit at East Grinstead in 1939. McIndoe treated hundreds of Royal Air Force aircrew who had suffered severe burns and disfigurements — men whose faces and hands had been destroyed by fire in crashed and burning aircraft. His methods were revolutionary: he understood that psychological and social recovery was inseparable from physical healing, and he encouraged his patients to integrate into the town during their long treatment and recovery.
McIndoe's patients formed a club — the Guinea Pig Club — named with characteristic RAF dark humour for the experimental nature of their treatment. East Grinstead became known as 'the town that did not stare', because local residents, accustomed to seeing badly disfigured men in their shops, pubs, and streets, simply treated them as ordinary visitors. This conscious act of social inclusion was itself part of the treatment: McIndoe believed that patients who were accepted in society healed faster and more completely.
The museum documents this exceptional chapter alongside the broader history of East Grinstead as a Sussex market town. Collections cover the town's medieval origins, its development as an important coaching stop on the London to Brighton road, its Victorian expansion, and its twentieth-century growth. Objects, photographs, and personal testimonies bring both the wartime story and the wider town history to life.
The building itself has historical interest: East Court is a Victorian mansion set in gardens, used by the museum to connect exhibits with a sense of period domestic life. The museum is volunteer-run and maintains strong community connections, with local families contributing objects and memories that deepen the personal quality of its displays.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- The museum is volunteer-run with limited opening hours — check the website carefully before visiting, as hours can change during holidays and for special events.
- Ask volunteer staff about the Guinea Pig Club stories — their personal knowledge and enthusiasm greatly enhances the experience beyond what the displays alone can convey.
- East Grinstead station is served by the Southern Railway Oxted line from London Bridge and Victoria, making a day trip from London very feasible.
- Combine your visit with the Bluebell Railway at Horsted Keynes — the steam railway runs south from East Grinstead, with through services possible from the town's mainline station.
- The town centre retains several fine medieval timber-framed buildings visible from the High Street — worth exploring on foot after your museum visit.
- The museum cannot accommodate large coach parties — groups should contact in advance to arrange a suitable visit time.
- Parking is available on site at East Court and in town centre car parks; the museum is a short walk from the station.
- The museum shop carries a selection of books on the Guinea Pig Club and McIndoe's work — these provide excellent background reading for those who want to explore the story in more depth.
Highlights
The Guinea Pig Club
The museum's most celebrated story is that of the Guinea Pig Club, formed in 1941 by the patients and staff of McIndoe's burns unit at the Queen Victoria Hospital.
The club — whose name acknowledged the experimental nature of the surgery being performed — eventually had over six hundred members, mostly RAF and Commonwealth aircrew who had suffered severe burns in air combat. The museum holds photographs, personal testimonies, and objects relating to club members, documenting both the extraordinary courage of the men and the innovative social ethos that McIndoe brought to their recovery.
Sir Archibald McIndoe's Legacy
McIndoe (1900–1960) transformed plastic surgery from a relatively obscure specialty into a discipline that could restore men's lives as well as their faces. His techniques for skin grafting, eyelid reconstruction, and hand surgery were pioneering, but equally important was his understanding that social acceptance and psychological wellbeing were inseparable from physical recovery.
Display materials explain McIndoe's methods, his relationships with patients, and his wider influence on reconstructive surgery.
His work at East Grinstead established a tradition of excellence at the Queen Victoria Hospital that continues today.
The Town That Did Not Stare
One of the most moving aspects of the East Grinstead story is the response of the local community to McIndoe's patients. Shopkeepers, publicans, and residents of the town made a conscious decision to treat the disfigured airmen as they would any other customer or visitor — not to stare, flinch, or make their difference an obstacle to normal social life.
The museum explores this community response through oral histories, photographs, and documents, revealing how an entire town became part of the healing process in a way that no medical protocol could have prescribed.
Medieval Town Origins
East Grinstead's history long predates the Second World War. The town received its first market charter in the thirteenth century and developed as a significant settlement on the Wealden ridge, its main street lined with medieval timber-framed buildings that survive today. The museum traces these origins through archaeological finds, documents, and maps, explaining how East Grinstead grew from a small Sussex settlement into an important coaching town connecting London with the Channel ports.
The medieval street pattern and several individual buildings documented in the collection remain visible in the modern town.
Collections
The East Grinstead Museum holds approximately fifteen thousand objects and documents relating to the town and surrounding area, with particular strength in material connected to Sir Archibald McIndoe and the Queen Victoria Hospital. The Guinea Pig Club archive includes photographs, personal correspondence, and memorabilia from members across several decades of the club's activity.
Local history collections span the medieval period to the twentieth century and include significant photographic archives, trade directories, maps, and domestic material from local families.
The museum also holds collections relating to the town's medieval heritage, its Victorian expansion following the arrival of the railway, and its wartime experience beyond the hospital story.
McIndoe and the Guinea Pig Club
The story of Sir Archibald McIndoe, his pioneering reconstructive surgery, and the patients who became the Guinea Pig Club.
📍 McIndoe Gallery
East Grinstead Through the Ages
The history of East Grinstead from its medieval market origins to the twentieth century.
📍 Local History Galleries
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.