The People's Story Museum

Really lovely museum about the history of Edinburgh and facets of life throughout history. Free entry but worth donating the £5 for. The staff were really friendly. Particularly found the bit upstairs about leisure and housing interesting!

I had a delight visiting The People’s Story Museum. While I had a good experience visiting the Museum of Edinburgh (which was across the street), I found this one far more engaging. Let’s break down why. There were several places where wax figures were presented to depict the daily lives of Edinburgh. I really liked the second floor, which featured different depictions of the labor class mobilizing to secure more rights. In particular, I was interested in how socialism gathered a strong foothold among the working class before it led to the formation of the Labor party in the early 1900s. If there one critique I can provide, it’s that several of the informational boards have a ton of text on them. So it can get very crowded trying to look at pictures, key quotes, and informational text. I understand that space is limited so I wonder if there can be one board on top and another on the bottom. Personally, I find that there is a lot of things left unsaid by the exhibits when it comes to working class rights and fighting for more rights during the 19th and 20th century. I believe a more cohesive overview or organization will have crystallized the experience even more

Extremely interesting & very well presented history of the people, by the people, of Edinburgh over the centuries.

Really amazing spot to see the history of people from different spheres in Edinburgh. The entrance is free. Staff is available for any questions.

Well curated and thoughtful exhibitions. And what a lovely man at the reception - he gave me a formal introduction to the museum. Much appreciated and made the visit so much more pleasant!

Free entry. Museum situated in the old Canongate Tollbooth. Lots to see. Enjoyed the trade union banners. Interesting to see the map with defunct Edinburgh breweries. International brigade stuff too. Keep the red flag flying.

Excellent visit on a windy and rainy Saturday. The FREE museum is small, but very well put together. There is a lot of historical information on how the actual people lived, who they were, the struggles they faced, and how they over came them. Totally recommend!

Like many of the museums in Edinburgh this one is free to enjoy. It's mostly covers the subjects of work and employment over the years of people living in and around Edinburgh. There are alot of displays and stories regarding life and experiences as Edinburgh grew. If you like history this will be a rewarding experience, and should that you about 30 minutes to and hour to go through. There are stairs as there are three levels of displays. Great place to go if it's raining.

Worth a quick visit. The museum presents aspects of Edinburgh's history through the eyes of people who lived there. The museum is engaging and admission is free.

We were walking by and went inside. Very well displayed history of regular Edinburgh folk. It is a welcoming and unpretentious place, created with pride and love.

Ah to be surrounded by creepy mannequins... I popped into this place after hopping into Oink for lunch. Because what goes better with pulled pork then a wee bit of history? (answer: a lot of things.) This is no doubt and interesting little museum. It's free to enter and you're welcome to take pictures (obviously), so long as you clear it with the front desk before entering. It's a three story snapshot of how Edinburgh locals lived in the olden days... and the 80's. ... The first floor is a veritable horror shop of Edinburgh during the plague, and definitely take the time to read the information in this little dungeon. It's horrific but incredibly intriguing - an interesting snippet of a tumultuous past. The second and third floors are much of the same - depicting the living conditions and activities of Scottish folk throughout the ages. It is exceptionally interesting stuff. But... (you knew it was coming)... What is a really unique story, gets sort of overshadowed by the abundance of SUPER creepy mannequins. Maybe i've just watched one too many sci-fi flicks, but mannequins give me the hebegebees and the lot that's plunk into this place is a cut above the rest. I would have much preferred to wander about and take in the history of Edinburgh, without having to teeter around plague victims and taxidermy cats. And the 80's mannequins were just downright strange... So it's worth a stop in. It won't take you too long to pop through and if you're made of stronger stuff than myself, i'm sure the plastic people won't be quite so much of a deterrent. But do yourself a favour and actually READ the information... or else you're just walking through a room of creepy fake people and that's wholly a waste of time.

Edinburgh has a number of smaller museums tucked away here and there which don't necessarily get the same attention as the bigger, more castely sites. Whilst some attractions like the William Wallace tour or whisky extravaganzas might be fun and especially so for tourists, they don't necessarily give an accurate reflection of historic and present Scotland. Even Edinburgh Castle is embellished for the sake of marketing and keeping up its military image. This embellishment is really a Victorian remnant that Scotland's image has never really recovered from (ironic as the castle is largely a Victorian romantic refurbishment). To counter this we have places like the People's Story to tackle the nittier grittier facets of Scottish history. Some have suggested the People's Story is some kind of Marxist propaganda machine. I think that's probably an exaggeration, I don't imagine that's particularly on Edinburgh Council's agenda. Nevertheless it does offer a largely sympathetic account of Scottish "ordinary" and working class life up to present day, and that includes the vital aspect that the labour movements played in reacting to and shaping Scottish life. Admitedly this is probably not the easiet subject to cover. Overall the Museum has lots to see, and makes the most of its space to show it. There are a decent amount of panels but you don't feel like you have to read it all to get it. There is heavy use of mannequins and sets which I really like. I think its a good compliment to text and helps my imagination. It should take between one and two hours to get around properly. The staff here are really friendly and when I went in I was welcomed, introduced to the museum, and offered any assistance. A great gem of a museum tackling an important subject in a constructive way.

A museum built to celebrate the working class, so it's convenient that it's shoved at the arse end of The Royal Mile mainly trawled by plebs anyway. The People's Story is perhaps in need of a lick of paint, but does provide an alternative history of the city for those bored of the neverending stories about boiling oil getting chucked over the castle wall. The dummies provide just the right mix of intellect, unintentional comedy and creepiness, with special mentions going to the punk and the 80s teenagers, and it has an innocent charm often lacking in some of the more glitzy tourist attractions.

Though the People's Story is a little worn in places, the information provided is excellent and the displays are well arranged to provide Glasgow's story. This free stop along the Royal Mile is well worth the 30-60 minutes of looking for an overview of things like tenements, the poor, crime, labour unions, occupations (including women's employment), medical care, and more over several centuries.

This small museum sums up what I would consider to be missing from the big Museum of Scotland at the other end of the Royal Mile. This is because this museum is about the lives of the common people of those times and that is where the real history can be found. The story begins, with the aid of numerous reconstructions, by telling the story of people in Edinburgh in the 1800s moving through time until you'll find yourself not too far away from present day Edinburgh. This is a delightful museum and its information boards do absorb you as you travel through time learning how real people lived. As far as I'm concerned there's no better way of looking into Edinburgh's history.

Its a free museum with lots of good info and displays about the average and not so average Scottish citizen throughout the ages. We were short on time, so we only spent about 20 minutes here, but you could easily spend over an hour if you read everything.

Great place to find out what social lifestyles within the city was like a few hundred years ago(around 18th century) for working-class folks and those less fortunate. Exploring the ordinary life of punters at work or play, a collection of still life is housed within the ground and first floor of this 16th century tolbooth within the Canongate area. Imagine a dressmaker, a prison, workshops, laundrette, public houses, and then place yourself in these situations 300 odd years ago, you can get a pretty good mental picture of how grim daily life would be; without any form of modern technology. Tried to find fun and amusement within the history of this exhibit but just couldn't as the images depicted how difficut 1800's life actually was. The phrase "Laissez-faire" meant the goverment of the period believed that to leave the poor alone without interference was for the best. Later towards the 1940's standards of living improved greatly, by goverment intervention during war, which was supported by the people of the city, as illustrated by the exhibit. A kitchen dating from the 40's, brought back memories for me as some of the items featured here I remember using in the late 70's; just shows you the duration and durability of some components that you could use without electricity. Sights smells and sounds made this visit all the more real, like going back in time within a photograph and being able to move and explore. a kind of time capsule without "the machine". Entrance to the museum is free, but a donation is welcolme.

The People's Story is an excellent museum with a clearly socialist bent. The People's Story museum is not necessarily out-and-out Communist propaganda the way some Americans might think when I use "the S word". There are no posters of Marx and Lenin, no soviet flags or banners with Che's face emblazoned on them. The museum tells the story of what life was like for poor and working-class Edinburghers, which immediately sets it apart from most history museums that mainly dwell on wars or glorifying political and business leaders.The People's Story does not shy away from the fact that life for working-class people is tough, which may be anathema in the home of Adam Smith. It also does not concentrate on Horatio Alger style rags-to-riches stories, but illustrates the ways people took collective (rather than individual) action to better their situation. Creating cooperatives, forming labor unions, and yes - joining the socialist party. It also showed that workers were better off when they organized. The most interesting exhibit showed the various jobs in Edinburgh in the 19th century and compared them to modern day. This exhibit seems dated because "modern day" in this case means 1988, when the exhibit was likely created. I'm fairly sure the paper industry in Edinburgh is no longer geared towards creating continuous-feed paper for dot matrix printers, for example. Still, seeing the change in the way these jobs were done (and even what jobs exist) over time is fascinating. Other exhibits looked at immigration in the 1700s, law and order, women's rights, and social life. The social life one was amusing to me in that it featured a stereotypical early 80s punk rocker. Anyway, the museum is free and worth checking out.

I can't believe I've never visited this museum until last week, it's great and I would have absolutely loved this when I was younger! I'm really just a child at heart and as I was walking around the People's Story museum I made up little stories for each of the dummies and I can imagine them coming to life when the museum shuts and just going about their daily business. It takes you through various stages in the history of Edinburgh and tells of where people would have worked, how they would have lived etc. Unlike museum where a lot of reading involved (shock horror), the well organised displays here each tell a story in themselves. The dummies looks scarily realistic, particularly an axe wielding soldier on the ground floor which was a bit scary. I loved the display "a fitting room in Darling's" where you could see a glamour puss getting dolled up to the nines by one of the shop assistants. They had faux fur coats, feathered hats and a cigarette case with those awesome cigarette holders that make smoking look ridiculously glamorous. I'm not a smoker, but if I had one of those cigarette holders and 1920's clothing then I might change my mind. This whole museum makes you want to travel back in time to visit all the eras shown here, even if just for a day. When I popped in I felt like I completely escaped from the outside world and was completely absorbed with all the different scenarios... I have a very vivid imagination so that's probably why but I'd be shocked if anyone went and didn't enjoy this great FREE museum. I have to also mention the staff who were all super friendly and made the atmosphere even more relaxed.

I came here on the spur of the moment and very glad I did. This museum for me is my favourite so far and the most interesting as its about real hardworking people from long ago growing up in Edinburgh; fishwives and housemaids, dockhands and carpenters, window cleaners and seamtresses. I especially loved the biography of the people on display however the voiceovers were very distracting but still very interesting and brought the people to life. So much history in this museum and would highly highly reccommend. There is one draw back though, I think the place needs updating, not the displays as they are meant to represent the past but the decor, especially the video room which resembles a doctors waiting area and the movie is played on a VHS on a tv that my nana had and the film itself is about 30 years old, this needs updated majorly to show life now in the 21st century from how it was centuries before.

Housed in the late 16th century Canongate Tolbooth, 'The People's Story ' is a museum with a difference. It tells the lives of ordinary Edinburgh people from the 18 century to the present day. Reconstructions are supported with photographs and written sources as well as members of staff telling tales of how life used to be. The museum is filled with sights, sounds and smells of the past including things like a prison cell, washroom and a town crier. They also have some rare artifacts and everyday objects. So if you have a few hours to spare go have a look and its free.

This is a totally new discovery for me, as I have never even heard of this place before my firend suggested we go last week to get out of the rain (typical Scottish summer!) This museum is about regular people, dating back to the late 18th century right up until the present day and hosts exhibitions of their working lives as well as what people used to do recreationally. This is really interesting and, although the museum itself is a little tired, we easily spent 2 hours in here reading and learning about the good old days! It was really interesting. Great wee museum which is hidden away, but worth a visit!

Free entry museum housed in the old canongate tollbooth on the royal mile. Very interesting. My dad was born and raised in canongate so it was particularly interesting to me.

Was in here today and found it very eductional and informing. If you were to come to Edinburgh for a holiday or mayuybe jusy a day out I advise you to try it.

a pleasant museum that traces the lives and work of the people dating back to 1700's to date. there are many reconstructions the are intriguing to watch, like a servant cleaning a grate, a tea room and washroom, even a prisoner in a cell. smells and sounds heighten the experience along with the many photographs and everyday objects around. very exhilariating and eye opening to the past, keeps you wanting to know more