Kirkstall Abbey House Museum is dedicated to exploring social and children history in Victorian Leeds. The museum has special collections of toys from the past, penny slot machines, and the largest exhibition is the recreation of the Victorian street. The street has been created as an equivalent of a modern high street with different types of shops filled with items. This exhibition allows people to experience what life would have been like in Victorian times in Leeds, England with the recreated street.
The museum is situated up the hill on the opposite side of the road from Kirkstall Abbey. I combined the afternoon with a visit to the abbey and a visit to the Abbey House Museum.
I first had a look at the Victorian Street, which is the first enhibit upon entering the museum. I had a wander around the shops that were open. Below is the clay pipe shop. These clay pipes can be found along the Thames. They were used for tobacco.
There was a drug store with different medicines.
Perfumery.
A grocer's shop.
A butcher's.
A public house (pub).
Ironmonger.
Outhouse toilets.
A standard Victorian house.
A wealthy person's Victorian house.
Another house (upstairs).
A schoolhouse.
The undertaker.
Upstairs were collections of toys. Some of these were Victorian, but there were collections from all the decades. The collection also showed 1980s and some 1990s toys too.
The museum is worth seeing for the nostalgia of the toys and also to see the recreated Victorian streets. This museum is similar to Milestones Museum in Basingstoke as it also has recreated streets.
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