The Abbey House Museum has been welcoming visitors for almost a century
Kitty Ross, the Leeds Museums and Galleries’ curator of social history, at the Abbey House Museum
The Victorian era ended more than a century ago, but there is one spot in Leeds where you can experience the time period for yourself.
Leeds‘ Abbey House Museum has been open for almost a century now, and has long been a popular attraction for people in the area. Sitting across from Kirkstall Abbey, the museum itself was once part of the Abbey‘s grounds.
It was once the gatehouse to Kirkstall Abbey, with parts of the museum dating back to its founding in 1152. When the abbey was closed down during the dissolution of the monasteries, the museum building became a home before it came into the care of the Leeds Corporation.
Now owned by the council, the Abbey House Museum has been open since 1927.
The Victorian Streets at the Abbey House Museum
One of its most famous features is its recreated Victorian Street, lined with shops, police stations, and more. Kitty Ross is the Leeds Museums and Galleries curator of social history, and said: “That came about in the 1950s, in a slightly roundabout way because they’d done an exhibition at the Abbey, looking at the sort of trades that might have been run from the Abbey, so they looked at things like a blacksmith, a wheelwright, and an apothecary and various things like that.
“So they did a sort of temporary exhibition on the those sort of old crafts, loosely related to what the monks at the Abbey would have been doing.”
They got a new curator around the same time, Cyril Maynard Mithcell, who previously had worked at York Castle Museum, which had its own reconstructed streets, and so decided to do something similar here in Leeds. It now draws in visitors every year, with many school trips also visiting regularly.
Some of the penny slot machines at the Abbey House Museum
Kitty said: “We do have a very good schools programme, and we hope that sort of taster of coming and visiting as a child means that children will bring their family during the holiday, and also have that memory for life.”
She added: “I think the streets are a very strong draw, people also remember that we have a very good penny slot machine collection, so that’s another unique thing that people remember and come and visit here. We try and make sure that we have a programme of changing exhibitions and also changing activities, so as well as school visits, there’s always activities during the summer holidays and at half term.”
However the Abbey House Museum is not a children’s musuem, and so there is plenty for adults to enjoy too, with Kitty adding: “It’s not a static museum, it’s always changing, and I think the core of it is we do have fantastic collections and we’re able to, through the changing exhibitions, bring all sorts of different things out, so there’ll always be something new to see here. Next year is our centenary, so we’re going to really focus in on those collections for next year.”
It’s current exhibition is called ‘In the Picture’ and it links historic items with photos and images of them in use, in catalogues, or in other images. This includes musical instruments, dresses, a collection of items belonging to female wrestle Sue Brittain, and even a skeleton belonging to Mok the gorilla, who once lived at London Zoo in the 1930s.
Some of the displays at the Abbey House Museum
Kitty said: “It’s a fabulous building to work in. You can’t take for granted the fact that you’r in a building that the core of it is over 800-years-old.
“I just love the fact that it’s got such rich collections and we’re always continually acquiring things from the people of Leeds, we’re trying to make sure our collections are increasingly representative of the many different stories from all the different people who live locally.
“People in the area feel so much passion for it, but we’re also here to give a general good visit for visitors from wherever they come.”
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