Ragged School Museum

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Lonely Planet review

Both adults and children are inevitably charmed by the Ragged School Museum, a combination of mock Victorian schoolroom - with hard wooden benches and desks, slates, chalk, inkwells and abacuses - on the 1st floor, and social history museum below. 'Ragged' was a Victorian term used to refer to pupils' usually torn, dirty and dishevelled clothes.

The museum celebrates the legacy of Dr Joseph Barnardo, who founded the first free school for destitute East End children in this building in the 1860s.

During term time, the museum runs a schools programme, where pupils are taught reading, writing and arithmetic by a strict school ma'am in full Victorian regalia called Miss Perkins; and if you're very good - no talking up the back, there - you can watch and listen to these lessons from the glassed-off gallery. On the first Sunday of the month, the Victorian lesson is offered to the general public at and . It's great fun.