Investigating Thackray Museum in the quiet of the night is an amazing but seriously disturbing night of ghost hunting.
Louise Jeffrey, Founder of Fright Nights & Original Ghost Hunting Company
History
The Lady Lane Problem
The story begins with the Irish Famine. In the late 1840s, thousands of Irish refugees fled starvation and arrived in Leeds, overwhelming the city’s existing poor relief system. The old Lady Lane workhouse, which had served Leeds since the 17th century, could not cope with the influx. The Poor Law Guardians of Leeds resolved to build a new workhouse with the latest facilities.
The foundation stone was laid in 1858. The architects were Perkin and Backhouse of Leeds, established workhouse designers who understood the specifications required by the Poor Law Board. The new Leeds Union Workhouse opened on 28 March 1861 at a cost of £32,000, built to accommodate 784 paupers.
The Original Complex
The workhouse comprised several elements:
→ Main Block: The imposing building that now houses the museum, facing southeast towards Beckett Street with its entrance arch and distinctive Victorian architecture
→ Infirmary: To the north of the chapel, the original infirmary had up to 140 beds, including wards for the mentally ill
→ Chapel: Completed in 1861, Grade II listed, designed to instil religious and moral behaviour in inmates
→ "Idiotic" Wards: A separate block built in 1862-3 to the northwest of the chapel
The “idiotic” block, designed by Perkin and Backhouse, was two storeys high with male and female wards containing twenty beds each, plus two for attendants. The ground floor contained day-rooms on each side, and a small room (not padded) was adapted for violent cases. The walls were decorated with brightly coloured wallpaper to give a “cheerful appearance,” though no running water or washing facilities were installed. The attendants on these wards were pauper inmates themselves, receiving an evening ration of bread, cheese and beer on top of the ordinary diet.
Expansion
The workhouse was overcrowded almost from opening. The sick and able-bodied poor were not effectively separated, and diseases spread rapidly. The solution was expansion:
1872-4: A new 216-bed three-storey infirmary erected to the west of the main workhouse, extended around 1878 with 139 additional beds.
1893-4: Nurses’ home added, housing up to forty nurses.
1896-1900: Additional imbecile block constructed.
1901-2: New casual ward block erected on Gledhow Road for vagrants, featuring the “cellular system” with individual sleeping cells and stone-breaking cells for morning labour.
1905-6: Receiving block and further facilities added.
Some of the former wards and accommodation has been turned into a realistic street scene. Of all the places I felt the most unwelcome and genuinely on edge here.
Louise Jeffrey - Founder
From Workhouse to Hospital
By the end of the 19th century, the buildings had become largely used for medical care of the poor rather than workhouse labour. During the First World War, the complex was renamed the East Leeds War Hospital, treating armed services personnel wounded in France and Belgium.
In 1925, following the retirement of Dr James Allan, who had served as Medical Superintendent since 1881, the infirmary was renamed St James’s Hospital in his honour and that of Sir James Ford of the Leeds Board of Guardians. The workhouse merged fully with the hospital and became part of the NHS in 1948.
The old workhouse building itself became the Ashley Wing of St James’s Hospital, housing what became the first geriatric ward in the north of England. By the 1990s, however, the Victorian structure was considered unfit for modern medicine. As a listed building, it could not be demolished.
The Museum
Parliament gave permission for the building to house the Thackray Medical Museum, which opened in March 1997. The museum was co-founded by Paul Thackray (grandson of Charles F. Thackray, who had established a medical supplies company in Leeds in 1902) and Professor Monty Losowsky, a physician and educator.
Following a £4 million refurbishment that coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum reopened in May 2021 as the Thackray Museum of Medicine. During the pandemic closure, it became the first museum in the UK to serve as a COVID-19 vaccination hub.
The museum’s collection includes over 47,000 objects from medical history, spanning Roman times to the present. The highlight for many visitors remains the recreated Victorian street, complete with authentic sights, sounds, and smells, where visitors follow the lives and treatments of eight Victorian characters.
"....her body was sent to Leeds General Infirmary, where the public paid three pence each to view her corpse, raising £30 for the hospital"
The Yorkshire Witch
Until 2015, one of the museum’s most macabre exhibits was the skeleton of Mary Bateman, the “Yorkshire Witch.”
Mary Bateman (c.1768-1809) was a confidence trickster, poisoner, and murderer who terrorised Leeds for two decades. Born Mary Harker to a North Yorkshire farming family, she displayed criminal tendencies from childhood, losing job after job in domestic service due to theft.
Moving to Leeds in the late 1780s, she reinvented herself as a fortune teller and purveyor of magical charms, convincing the gullible that she possessed supernatural powers. Her most famous hoax was the “Prophet Hen of Leeds,” where she presented eggs supposedly laid with the words “Christ is coming” inscribed upon them. In reality, she had written on the eggs herself and forced them back into the unfortunate hen.
Her crimes escalated to murder. In 1806, she poisoned Rebecca Perigo while supposedly treating her for a curse, extracting money and goods from the victim’s husband William over a period of more than two years. When William discovered one of the “charms” he had purchased was worthless, he contacted the police. Poison and stolen goods were found in Mary’s home.
Tried at York Castle in March 1809, she was found guilty of fraud and murder. Her attempt to avoid execution by claiming pregnancy failed when a jury of twelve married women examined her and declared her not pregnant. She was hanged on 20 March 1809 before a crowd estimated between 5,000 and 20,000.
After execution, her body was sent to Leeds General Infirmary, where the public paid three pence each to view her corpse, raising £30 for the hospital. Her body was dissected by surgeon William Hey over three days. Strips of her skin were tanned into leather and sold as magic charms. Her skeleton was retained for anatomy classes and subsequently put on public display.
The skeleton remained on display at the Thackray Museum until 2015, when the museum decided to cease using human remains in exhibits. No relatives claimed Mary’s remains. Her skeleton (mysteriously missing her feet and legs below the knee) was transferred to the University of Leeds medical school, where it now rests in the morgue alongside cadavers used to train doctors.
Some believe her spirit remains at the museum.
The Haunted Museum
The Thackray Museum has developed a formidable reputation as one of the most actively haunted buildings in West Yorkshire. The conversion from working hospital to museum appears to have intensified the reported activity.
Documented Phenomena
The Woman in 18th Century Dress
Staff have reported sightings of a woman in 18th century clothing waving at them from various locations in the building. Her period dress predates the workhouse (built 1861), suggesting she may relate to an earlier structure on the site or, perhaps, to Mary Bateman herself, who operated in Leeds during the late 1700s.
The Grey Lady
Multiple witnesses describe a 19th century woman in grey, seen walking the dark corridors. She is sometimes referred to simply as “the grey lady,” distinct from the 18th century figure.
The White-Coated Doctor
The recreated Victorian street, one of the museum’s most popular exhibits, appears to have attracted its own resident ghost. A man in a white coat has been seen walking among the cobblestones and shop fronts, sometimes vanishing when approached. Whether he was a doctor, surgeon, or attendant from the building’s medical past remains unknown.
Footsteps and Urine
One of the more unpleasant recurring phenomena involves the sound of mysterious footsteps, often followed by a strong smell of urine. This combination suggests inmates from the workhouse or patients from the hospital era, particularly those from the “idiotic” wards or casual ward, where facilities were basic at best.
Physical Contact
Visitors and investigators report being touched, grabbed, and pushed by unseen hands. These interactions appear to occur throughout the building rather than being localised to one area.
Intelligent Responses
Teams report what they describe as “intelligent poltergeist activity”: knocks and bangs that respond directly to questions called out into the darkness. This interactive quality has made the museum particularly popular with paranormal investigation groups.
Emotional Atmosphere
Many visitors report overwhelming feelings of dread and depression in certain parts of the building. Given the history of suffering that occurred here, particularly in the workhouse wards where the destitute, sick, and mentally ill languished, such emotional residue might be expected.
Television Investigation
The museum featured in Series 18 of Most Haunted (Episode 3), where the team experienced activity including:
→ Clear footsteps approaching and then retreating on command in the Victorian street area
→ What sounded like a woman's cry or scream.
→ Physical effects on team members, including difficulty breathing and chest pains
→ EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) responses captured on recording equipment
Visiting Today
The Thackray Museum of Medicine is one of the leading independent medical museums in the UK. The main galleries explore the history of healthcare from Victorian times to the present, with interactive displays and the famous recreation of 1840s Leeds slum streets.
The museum also hosts the “Recovery?” gallery, which specifically addresses the building’s workhouse origins and connects the architectural space with the lives of those who suffered within it.
The museum is located on the St James’s Hospital campus, part of what has been dubbed “The Medical Mile” stretching northeast from Leeds city centre. It sits opposite Beckett Street Cemetery, a Victorian burial ground containing the remains of many who died in the workhouse and hospital.
Ghost hunting events take place regularly, offering overnight access to teams of investigators and members of the public. These events typically include the full range of investigation techniques: vigils, séances, glass divination, table tipping, and the use of electronic equipment including K2 meters and spirit boxes.
Whether the phenomena reported here are genuine paranormal activity, residual emotional energy from centuries of suffering, or simply the power of suggestion in a building saturated with dark history, the Thackray Museum remains one of the most requested venues for supernatural investigation in the north of England.
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