Wilberforce House

Unfortunately this museum is not the same since the refurbishments.
I’d recommend skipping this one, and visiting Streetlife, and the Hull and East Riding Museums instead.
However, don’t forget that all Hull City Council museums are free entry.

The museum is not the same since they refurbished it. There is far too much information for young children to take in now, they may nit understand and definately will lose interest in. Before there were interesting displays which drew you in a made you feel as if you were there, but some of them were removed so that they didn’t scare children… But it’s history, you can’t make it nicer.

Up until 2007 the previous reviews of Wilberforce House would have made sense.
However, since the refurbishment, there are no doll displays, the shop displays haven’t been there since Streetlife was built! And there are no longer costume displays.
This is a budget museum, refurbished on a budget. It has replaced exhibits and artefacts with laminated boards of writing, meaning children will and do get bored very quickly, you can hear them crying if you walk round on a weekend or school holiday.
It is a very intense subject matter though, so everyone should visit for those reasons. just don’t expect to spend more than 30 minutes here.

wilberforce house is mainly a museum dedicated to william wilberforce and his part played in the abolotion of slavery. there are many hands on exhibits to get people involved in realising what this was all about. there are other exhibits here too though, rich in hulls history of people and places, replica old shops and collections.

William Wilberforce was the abolisher of slavery. This was his home.
It is designed to show slavery and it’s effects and there is an auction stand that has a taped voice and you can be auctioned as a slave (ok it is for kids education. I like it too) and a deck reconstruction with slaves packed in (also spaces for kids to slide in and see how it feels). It is quite a moving experience and hopefully provokes deep thoughts. Slavery IS still happening but no longer openly.
These exhibits are not heavy just educational and then there are lighter displays.
Toys and dolls, a reconstructed old chemists shop with all the apothacaries jars and pill making equipment, so many other things too. These are housed in the house and connecting Georgian houses.
The garden is beautiful and leads down to the River Hull boardwalk. The boardwalk itself is great to sit and stroll. here were the graving docks, the arsenal, the castle once.
Lots of statuery, some of slaves. Next door is a herb garden.
Many happy hours can be spent here and in the rest of the cobbled old town with its quaint buildings. It is now called the Museum District as other museums are here too.