Thackray Museum of Medicine is housed on the site of the Leeds Union Workhouse. Opened in 1861 and designed and built by workhouse architects Perkins and Backhouse, the building housed 784 paupers at its opening.

It is unlikely that children were present in this workhouse, as the Moral and Industrial Training school, built a few years before, was designed to educate poor children in shoe-making.

The workhouse was a place of hardship, and hard labour would have taken place in the adjoining yards.

The building had its own custom-built chapel to instil moral and religious behaviour in all inmates. Women and men were housed separately, and all evidence of former lives was disregarded on entry to the building. Families were split up, clothes were changed for dull, prison-like uniforms, and there was little hope of salvation.

The workhouse had an infirmary building to the rear, now part of St James’s Hospital. This had one doctor to care for all workhouse inmates and infirmary inmates. Infirmary staff to help the doctor were sought from the able-bodied inmates from the workhouse, so care was often non-specialist and poor.

The workhouse master and matron would have lived in a house on the workhouse grounds. It is thought that the building that was the Wainwright education centre in the Thackray Museum of Medicine was the top floor of the Master’s home. It was attached to the workhouse via a corridor, which was added later in the development of the site.

Over the years, the workhouse grew, and new infirmary wings were built to accommodate the large number of sick people who needed to be admitted for free healthcare. By 1870, the infirmary was full to bursting, and the Poor Law Board of Guardians (who gathered funds to erect the workhouse initially) built more external wings to allow more people access to healthcare.

In 1906, more new buildings were added to the site to allow extensions, including kitchens, stores, sick beds, and sewing rooms.

In the advent of war in 1915, the Guardians offered the workhouse and infirmary buildings to the war
effort, and the main building (the museum) became the East Leeds War Hospital. During this time, the king visited the soldiers and spoke to each wounded soldier. Soldiers were admitted for a variety of reasons, and it is thought many may not have survived their wounds. Sir Berkley Moynihan, an eminent surgeon of the age, undertook care in the hospital at this time.

In 1925, the Poor Law Infirmary in Beckett Street was renamed St James’s Hospital (in honour of Dr James Allen and Mr James Ford, who had undertaken many improvements on the site). The change in name and status meant new nurses came to work here, and a nurses’ wing was opened to house them. The hospital raised funds for an electric-lit operating theatre and many other modern amenities.

When the National Health Service came into being in 1948, the workhouse building blended into the hospital.

The Thackray Museum building was used as the geriatric ward for many years until, in the early 1990s, it became evident that it was no longer fit for purpose. Thackray Museum of Medicine took over the building, which was well placed to house the wonderful collection of surgical instruments dating from Roman times to the present day.

A high level of paranormal activity has been witnessed here: dark figures roaming around the building, poltergeist activity, loud footsteps, whispers, crying, rapid drops in temperature, and people being touched and grabbed by unseen hands. There have been many interactions with all the paranormal electronics, high spikes on K11 meters, and voices captured on EVPs (electronic voice phenomena). Without any doubt, this is one location that has provided us with many unexplainable experiences.

What will you experience in the dead of night of your haunted adventure at Thackray Medical Museum?