Detailed review by magdadh
magdadh
Perth, United Kingdom96%
Dundee's textile heritage is displayed and explored in one of the Discovery City's prime attractions, the Verdant Works. Located in a disused jute mill in the heart of Dundee's old industrial district, a stone's throw from the university and within walking distance of the city centre, Verdant Works presents a fascinating exhibition of the past and tantalizing glimpses of the possible future.
Dundee had developed as a whaling and ship-building centre before the explosion of the jute industry in the early 19th century turned it into an industrial city.
The life of jute workers was unimaginably hard. Most of the mill workers were women and children, as their wages were lower than men's. Often boys were fired immediately on reaching 18 years of age, and unemployed Dundee men were "kettle boilers", looking after the home and babies while women and older children went to work. Infant mortality was horrendously high, with one in three children dying in infancy and the life expectancy of 33 years while nearby village of Glamis had 60. 12 year old Dundee boys were four inches shorter than boys from the surrounding countryside, and cholera, typhoid and TB were rife.
Jute barons, on the other hand, lived the lives of opulence and luxury, and satisfied their consciences by funding public buildings, institutions and parks.
Verdant Works' exhibits compellingly show the social history of the city, with a particular focus on the jute mill life. There are life-sized tableaux of mill workers (with audio tracks of their conversations) and slum dwellers, exhibits of machinery and galleries explaining the route of jute from the growers in India to the final product used for ropes, sacking and covers on the wagons that colonized the American West. Numerous audio stations have tracks of mill girls and their family members telling their stories, while several films make the past come alive with historic footage and pictures.
There are also hands-on exhibits, including computer games and multimedia programmes, samples of fibres and jute cloth as well as a look at the man made fibres that eventually replaced jute. The galleries present advantages of jute as a sustainable material (as opposed to the oil-derived polypropylene) and its possible revival in the current green-conscious era. The museum also touches on the wider aspects of Dundee's social history and possible directions of its future development. Of the three J's of jute, jam and journalism, only journalism remains, and the 40,000 textile workers in the 1920s have been reduced to 400. The post-industrial Dundee is only now finding its direction, and it lies in the research that flourished in the institutions funded by the jute barons and the industrial and shipping heritage turned visitors' attractions. The three Js are being replaced by the three Ts of tourism, technology and teaching as the newly confident Dundee looks into its future.
Verdant Works requires a minimum of an hour for a decent browse, and a seriously interested visitor could easily spend more than two hours there. The attraction has a gift shop with an adequate selection of Scottish and Dundee souvenirs as well as a small café that serves hot and cold drinks, soups and muffins.
The entrance fee is reasonable for what's on offer, with a family ticket under 20 GBP and and individual entry at 6.50 GBP at the time of writing in 2011. For locals, paying for one entry gives an annual pass and combined tickets with the HMRS Discovery are available.
There is free parking to the back of the building.
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