The Ripon Workhouse Museum, one of Britain’s most complete surviving Victorian workhouses, has reopened after a £2.8 million redevelopment, offering visitors an immersive experience that includes tasting gruel, sweeping the yard, and receiving lessons from volunteer “schoolmasters.”
Immersive Experience Highlights Victorian Poverty
Visitors enter through the vagrants’ block, where the sound of coughing fills the air. They encounter baths, a one-size-fits-all coarse men’s nightshirt, and a reproduction “de-infestor” used to fumigate paupers’ clothes. Curator Laura Allan noted, “All their possessions would be taken from them. They would be stripped. They would be bathed. If you were lucky you would be the first person in the bath water. If you were unlucky, you were the third.”
Allan added, “It’s interesting that the reasons people became homeless in the past are very similar as today – so alcoholism, mental health, family breakdown, veterans returning from war.”
Interactive Activities and Historical Accuracy
Visitors can shut themselves in a vagrants’ cell, pick oakum from old ropes, or pose for a family portrait in replica workhouse uniforms. The museum also features a schoolroom where volunteers instruct children on proper behavior. Director Alexa Vernon said, “I’m not sure we can serve gruel every day, but children will be able to get stuck into sewing and hunt for mice and listen to the sounds, and they might realise how lucky they are compared to Victorian children.”
Major Conservation and Restoration
The redevelopment, supported by the National Lottery heritage fund, addressed critical structural issues. Vernon explained, “You could honestly stick a screwdriver in the rotting window frames and it would stand up independently. The roof was leaking. We had water damage throughout. The wiring was like spaghetti junction. We had unsupported arches. Our structural engineer said that technically the building shouldn’t stand up.”
Previously, the museum experience was likened to “walking round a 1970s council offices with bits of interpretation,” as it once housed North Yorkshire social services. Vernon noted that some Tripadvisor comments suggested “it looks like they’ve not finished it.” The lottery funding has been transformative, fixing the roof, windows, and painting walls in original taupes, pinks, and greens.
Cellar Opened for First Time Since 1930s
A highlight of the revamp is the cellar, believed to have been last opened in the 1930s. Allan said, “This is probably exactly how it would have looked when it was a workhouse. It’s the only space that really has never been touched.” Visitors can see where meat was slaughtered and stored.
National Story of Poverty and Welfare
The museum tells a story beyond Ripon. Vernon emphasized, “This is a national story. Workhouses have an important story to tell about poverty, welfare and justice and there were workhouses up and down the country. This was the Victorian solution to poverty.” The museum is one of three in Ripon, alongside a courthouse museum and a prison and police museum.
Curators believe the stories have contemporary resonance. Vernon said, “Poverty still exists, doesn’t it. People can come here and think about poverty, think about how we treat people and think about whether we are treating people more fairly now.” She hopes visitors leave “more informed, but also more compassionate, thoughtful and connected to the stories of those who came before us.”
