The Workhouse Museum

The Workhouse Museum stands in Ripon, a small city in North Yorkshire. It occupies a former workhouse built in 1855 on the site of an earlier house donated by William Aislabie in 1776. A block for vagrants was added in 1877. The building later became offices for social services until 1996. The museum began in the gatehouse, restored in 1996, and opened the garden to the public in 2010. In 2017 the main block was added, doubling the museum’s size. Both the main block and gatehouse are grade II listed buildings. The main block is built of brown brick with stone details and a slate roof. It has two storeys and eleven bays, with shaped gables and a central doorway under a four-centred arch. The windows mix sashes and casements. The gatehouse is made of red brick with stone dressings and a slate roof. It has two storeys and three bays, with a carriage entry in the centre topped by a dated parapet and a three-light mullioned window above. The gatehouse also has casement windows. Visitors find two listed buildings forming the museum. The main block contains displays about the workhouse’s history and daily life. The gatehouse entrance leads into restored rooms and a small garden opened to the public in 2010. The site includes single-storey wings flanking the main block, one extending towards the road. The museum shows how the building served the poor, vagrants, and later social services before becoming a heritage site.