The Dublin Tenement Museum plans to showcase the depressing side of poverty particularly in the worst slums in the UK and will be open to the public in mid-2017.
Located at 14 Henrietta Street, the museum will serve as a center of history keen on showing the public the tenement life of the people during 1916. It will host exhibitions that also depict the social history of the building and its street sometime between the 1750s to the 1970s.
The Dublin Tenement Museum had started as a residential building for the wealthy class of Ireland in 1750 before it was turned into an office building. During the mid-1800s, it became an estate court before it went bankrupt due to the Great Famine. Afterward, it was opened to military families before becoming a tenement building with 17 flats.
Heritage Officer for Dublin City Council Charles Duggan told The Lonely Planet that the would-be museum has been "suffering from generations of neglect by landlords who had put nothing in the building." He mentioned that with 17 separate flats and 100 families living in it, former residents suffered severe health issues.
The building has started renovation works ten years ago and calls on the public to share photographs of Dublin's tenement flats. On its Facebook page, they have collated pictures of important occasions such as christenings, communions and confirmations, birthdays, weddings.
There are also photos of the old furniture, lino floor coverings, wallpapers, figurines and pictures mounted on walls and mantelpieces, china sets, cutlery, teapots and tablecloths, cookers, and kitchen utensils. The heritage council would want the Dublin Tenement Museum to be an immersive experience rather than just a knowledge tour.
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