13th March 2012

Susannah Place Museum

    It was a slow start to the day. I woke early and spent 4 hours typing away at my laptop, but still had hours more to do to catch up on my blog.
    I didn't want it to control my trek, and since the sun was shining, I headed off to visit the Susannah Place Museum in the Rocks. The museum comprises a terrace of 4 houses, built in 1844 and fully restored. The aim here is to recreate a 19th-century community, complete with open laundries and brick privies, and provide an insight into the socio-economic conditions of the day. It all reminded me of a street in the Beamish Museum in Northumberland, though almost all of the buildings in the latter were lifted and shifted to their present location. The buildings in Susannah Place were lived in from 1844 to 1990.
    The families had to live through hard times, with the occasional plague of rats, and one instance of bubonic plague.
    But when I think about it, in the late 19th century some of my ancestors lived in similar 2-up/2-down terraced miners' houses in the village I grew up in, and these houses are still being occupied today. When I researched my family history, I found a married couple of my ancestors with 4 children and 2 lodgers living in one such house.
    Sadly, when I arrived at the museum, it was herding groups of school children around, and it would be several hours before the general public could gain access. I wasn't prepared to hang around.

A Different View of the Rocks

The City's Monorail Takes a Turn

    Instead, I strolled around to the Opera House, sat on a bench overlooking the harbour, and almost dozed off. Yesterday I had lost a lot of steam. Today I was totally detached, with little energy or enthusiasm. I was sickening for something and was well and truly out of it.
    I made my way back to base, managed to do my last bit of laundry on this trip, and then sank into oblivion.