The Ragged School Museum is a museum in the

London Borough of Tower Hamlets The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London boroughs, London borough covering much of the traditional East End of London, East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former Metropolitan boroughs of the County of London, metropol ...

. The museum was opened in 1990 in the premises of the former

Dr Barnardo's Barnardo's is a British charity founded by Thomas John Barnardo in 1866, to care for vulnerable children. As of 2013, it raised and spent around £200 million each year running around 900 local services, aimed at helping these same group ...

Copperfield Road Ragged School. The school opened in 1877 to serve the children of Mile End with a basic education. It was the largest of its kind at the time. It closed in 1908 when sufficient government/

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kn ...

schools had been established to take over the work. At its height the school had more than 1,000 pupils on weekdays, and 2,400 Sunday school attendees. The team continued to organise events for the local community even after the school closed. The building saw later use as a factory. The museum is housed in three canalside warehouses at 46–50 Copperfield Road. The buildings were saved from demolition in the 1980s by local residents and a trust set up to manage the property in 1990. In December 2016 it was awarded a £4.3m restoration grant by the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

. The museum, which is run by volunteers, seeks to record the establishment in 1844 of the London Ragged School Union and to recreate the experience of how Victorian children would have been taught. It features a reconstructed Victorian classroom and a typical

East End The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

kitchen from 1900. Gallery areas also introduce local and cultural history of the East End. The buildings face Mile End Park.

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External links

The Ragged School Museum
Museums established in 1990 Defunct schools in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets School museums Museums in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets History museums in London Local museums in London 1990 establishments in England Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Mile End {{UK-hist-stub