During a period in London’s history where poor education was rife, a number of schools called ‘ragged’ schools were set up in order to provide free education to children who needed it the most – and The Ragged School Museum was the largest of them all. Formed up of three canalside buildings, the school, formerly known as Copperfield Road Ragged School which opened in 1877, is now a museum where you can step back in time and get a taste of an authentic Victorian classroom.
The museum features an authentic Victorian classroom which has been set up exactly as it would have been when the school was still operational. The classroom has seen around 16,000 children experience a lesson within its walls and is an immersive part of Victorian East End history. You’ll feel as if you’ve stepped back right back to Victorian London as the classroom is equipped with authentic and well-used school desks, slate writing boards and chalks, blackboards and easels and even dunce hats for anyone naughty enough to deserve them.
What’s more, the museum has reconstructed a domestic kitchen as it would have been in the year 1900, complete with utensils and artefacts that visitors will be able to handle. Once a month, the classroom hosts an authentic Victorian lesson with actors dressed to the nines in full Victorian costume for you to experience the real deal – next thing you know you’ll be greeting everyone with an ‘ello guv’nor’. The lesson is open to all ages so it makes for a great family day out and gives an insight into the lives of the children’s great great great grandparents. There’s also a handy dandy cafe onsite called The Ragged Cafe, serving coffee, pastries and light lunchtime bites in case you feel peckish.
The school’s history
The school was opened by Thomas Barnado who left his home city of Dublin for London, intending to train as a doctor and then move to China as a missionary. Yet having been confronted with the bleak realities of the poor who were deeply affected by the sweeping cholera epidemic, poor education and poverty, he gave up his medical training and opened a school for the poor instead.
Copperfield Road Ragged School remained open for 31 years and during that time gave free basic education to tens of thousands of children in Victorian London. After its closure in 1908, the building was threatened with demolition but was saved by a group of locals who set up The Ragged School Museum Trust and the museum opened in 1990.
For more information, head to The Ragged School Museum’s official website here.