The recently opened Workhouse Museum lies in the Waterside area, on the opposite side of the river from the old town, in the eastern part of the city of Derry.

The museum is housed in Derry's original Victorian workhouse, which dates from 1840 and operated up until 1948. After it closed, the workhouse was used as a hospital until 1991. Life was deliberately designed to be tough for the hundreds of destitute people living there, in the hope that it would be an incentive for them to leave the workhouse. The museum examines the terrible economic conditions and struggle for survival experienced by the poor and unemployed, and focuses on the history of the Famine in Northern Ireland that occurred between 1845 and 1849.

Life in the workhouse is recreated through artefacts on display in the museum, one of which is a hearse used to cart off those who died. The museum also houses the Atlantic Memorial exhibition, which charts the important and extensive role played by Derry in the Battle of the Atlantic during WWII. The workhouse building is rumoured to be haunted.

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