Ragged School Museum

About the museum

The Ragged School Museum occupies three canalside warehouses on the Regent’s Canal in Mile End. When Thomas Barnardo arrived in London from Dublin in 1866, he saw the poverty and disease of the East End and gave up his plan to train as a doctor. In 1867 he opened his first ragged school, where poor children could get a free basic education.

Ten years later the Copperfield Road Free School opened in these buildings. It taught tens of thousands of children over thirty-one years and closed in 1908, when enough government schools had been built nearby. The warehouses then went through various industrial uses and were threatened with demolition in the early 1980s.

Local people campaigned to save them and set up the Ragged School Museum Trust. The museum opened in 1990 to explain the history of the ragged schools and the wider social history of the Victorian East End. A classroom was recreated as it looked in the 1870s, and a Victorian East End kitchen was set up as it might have been around 1900. About 16,000 schoolchildren visit each year, and the buildings were refurbished with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Highlights

• Victorian classroom recreated as in the 1870s
• Victorian East End kitchen with objects to handle
• Forgotten Tale, an immersive installation of a 1902 Spitalfields home
• First Sunday Victorian lessons led by an actor
• Canalside setting next to Mile End Park

Permanent exhibitions

• Victorian classroom – A classroom recreated in one of Dr Barnardo’s original school rooms as it was in the 1870s, with period desks, slates and blackboards, used daily for lessons led by an actor.
• Forgotten Tale – An immersive installation by Clarisse d’Arcimoles that rebuilds a 1902 photograph of a poor Spitalfields family’s home as a life-size three-dimensional scene.

Founded

1990

Operated by

Ragged School Museum Trust

Admission & discounts

The museum accepts donations. School visits are charged per class.

Accessibility

• Wheelchair accessible
• Elevator
• Accessible restroom: no information
• Accessible parking: no information
• Service dogs welcome: no information
• Tactile models & exhibits: no information
• Sign language tours: no information
• Easy-to-read materials: no information
• Audio description: no information

Step-free access throughout the building via the entrance at 50 Copperfield Road. A platform lift runs from the lower ground floor to the second floor. There is a step into the schools’ lunch room.

Kids & families

Great for kids & families

• Family tours & workshops
• Hands-on stations

Holiday family activities and monthly Victorian lessons are offered. In the Victorian kitchen, visitors can handle utensils and objects from around 1900.

Getting there & parking

The entrance is on Copperfield Road; it is not always possible to enter from the canal towpath. Cycle racks are behind the museum on the towpath, and cycle hire stations are on Aston Street, Harford Street and Mile End Road. Coach bays for school groups are outside the museum.

Amenities & dining

• Café
• Museum shop

Forno Ragged Café serves Italian pastries and light meals Thursday to Sunday, 9:00–15:30, and a takeaway counter is open daily 8:00–16:00. The museum has a gift shop.

Events & venue rental

• Spaces for rent

The museum is available for hire, including for film and fashion shoots. Enquiries go to the museum director’s office.

Plan your visit