The present Surgeons' Hall was designed by William Henry Playfair and completed in 1832, and is a category A listed building.

[4] The Museum at Surgeons Hall, Edinburgh dates from 1699 when the incorporation announced that they were making a collection of ‘natural and artificial curiosities’.

Daniel Defoe, an early visitor in 1726, wrote in his A Tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain that the "chamber of rarities" contained many curious things too numerous for him to describe.

At first, the entire upper floor of the building was devoted to the museum collections, which were open to the public and attracted large visitor numbers.

Throughout the 19th and early 20th century, the collection expanded as it became customary for surgeons and pathologists to donate not only specimens which they regarded as interesting or instructive, but surgical instruments and equipment.

With the great scientific and technical advances of the time, the museum began to acquire anaesthetic equipment, histology slides, X-rays and photographs.

This was over-ruled and the retained Barclay collection was relocated to a new home, created by the conversion and incorporation of an adjoining tenement building.

In 1989 a grant from the Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust resulted in a permanent exhibition entitled 500 Years of Surgery in Scotland, which made use of a wide variety of media including models, paintings, photographs, film loops, book, journal and newspaper displays, and other memorabilia.

[7] This, together with a regular series of temporary exhibitions and constant improvement of the interpretation, resulted in a progressive increase in visitor numbers.

[6] From an early age, Bell showed artistic talents that were developed by lessons from the foremost Scottish painter David Allan.

[2] John Menzies Campbell (1887–1974) was a Glasgow dentist and dental historian who amassed over his working lifetime a huge personal collection of specimens, instruments and paintings relating to the practice of dentistry.

[13] In the 19th and early 20th century wax and plaster casts or moulages showing abnormalities and diseases were widely used as teaching aids.

Robert Knox, the conservator of the museum who organised and catalogued the Bell and Barclay collections, had established himself as a very successful teacher of anatomy in the extramural school in Surgeon Square.

His body was dissected by Alexander Monro tertius, the university professor of anatomy, and the museum has on display two items from that notorious episode – Burke's death mask and a pocket book made from his skin.

He was a popular teacher noted for his diagnostic acumen, based on his powers of observation of meticulous detail, which were enhanced by his interest in the analysis of handwriting and of the origin of dialects.

Doyle, gave up medicine to become a writer, and, having achieved fame and wealth through the Sherlock Holmes stories, wrote to his former chief "...it is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes.”[3] In November 1870, the Hall was the scene of a public riot when the first group of female medical students from the University of Edinburgh attempted to sit their anatomy exam.

Subjects of recent exhibitions have included: breast cancer care, Charles Bell, chloroform, Joseph Lister, women's hospitals, and James Young Simpson.

Part of the public engagement development is done in collaboration with academic institutes, writers, artists, musicians and the museum's own volunteers who take lectures, talks, classes and workshops on an increasing variety of topics.

The museum collections are laid out as four permanent displays: Located in the Playfair Hall, this consists of pathology specimens, surgical instruments, casts and paintings.

[15] On the ground floor a mock anatomy theatre is the venue for a short video which recounts the public dissection of David Myles in 1702.

[14] The Quincentenary Conference Centre, a modern annexe to the site, is used each August as a theatre venue at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, when it is operated by the promotions company theSpaceUK and known as theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall.