The Red Lodge Museum

The Red Lodge Museum, perched at the top of Park Row in Bristol, invites you through its bright red door into over 400 years of layered history. Originally built in 1580 as an Elizabethan “party house” for Sir John Young and his wife Dame Joan, the Lodge was later expanded in the 1730s with graceful Georgian windows and interiors. In the Victorian era, it served as one of England’s first girls’ reformatories under Mary Carpenter, before being rescued in 1919 by the Bristol 1904 Arts Society and entrusted to the city as a museum. Today, eleven rooms—from the richly carved Great Oak Room to the intimate Mary Carpenter Room—are meticulously restored to showcase Tudor panelling, Georgian elegance, and the poignant stories of all who lived and worked here. Beyond its historic interiors, the Red Lodge Museum offers a tranquil Elizabethan knot garden, reconstructed in the 1980s from patterns in the house’s original plasterwork. Free to enter and supported by donations, it hosts occasional exhibitions and events that bring Bristol’s past to life—from immersive tours to children’s workshops. Thoughtful interpretation panels and a virtual tour ensure every visitor can uncover the many chapters of this remarkable building, making it a living testament to the city’s evolving social and architectural heritage