Red House & Garden Christchurch

A former Georgian workhouse, the Red House is now a museum exploring the story of Christchurch from before the Ice Age to modern times.

The workhouse

The building dates from 1764 and was the parish workhouse for Christchurch and Bournemouth. In 1886, as a result of the increasing population, a new union workhouse was built in Fairmile and the old house was sold to the vicar of Christchurch Priory, the Reverend T. H. Bush. Reverend Bush named the building ‘The Red House’ after the colour of the bricks and he demolished the women’s wards in 1887 to construct the stables, now the temporary exhibition gallery.

A workhouse was somewhere that people who had no job and no home could come and live with their family. This building could house up to 130 inmates, and included dormitories, a school room, separate yards for men, boys and girls, a hospital and a laundry.Read more