The Peace Museum is the only museum dedicated to the history and (often untold) stories of peace, peacemakers and peace movements, in the UK.

The museum aims to engage, inform and inspire. The Museum asks visitors to consider peace and peacemaking as an active, as opposed to passive endeavour, a challenge and something that requires effort, asking “What could you do?” What story will you tell”

The initial idea of creating a peace museum arose in the mid-1980s from Gerald Drewett of the Give Peace a Chance Trust. In 1990 this was carried forward when Shireen Shah, an MA student at Bradford University’s Peace Studies Department, wrote a dissertation proposing a ‘Museum for Peace’. Two years on, the International Network of Museums for Peace held its first conference at the University of Bradford in 1992, during which it was proposed that a Peace Museum be established in Bradford. A committee was established to seek finance and general support for the idea. Initially called ‘The National Peace Museum Project’, the Museum was established in 1994 through a five-year grant from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Foundation and operated out of a temporary site in Bradford in the Wool Exchange. In 1998 the Museum moved to its present site on the top floor of 10 Piece Hall Yard, in Bradford city centre.

The Peace Museum UK is now a fully Accredited museum - Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), a member of the International Network of Museums for Peace (INMP) and a partner of the Federation of International Human Rights Museums (FIHRM).

It is independent, has no political affiliation, is a charity and a company limited by guarantee.

WHAT'S ON THIS SUMMER

Current exhibitions chronicle Bradford’s peace heritage in the Bradford Room – ‘Peace Not Prejudice’; pacifists and peace organisations in the ‘Remembering Forward’ gallery space and Conscientious Objectors.

Other exhibits look at Campaigning; then and now. Uncommon Women, chronicles the women’s peace movement and panels from ‘Playing for Peace’ mark London 2012 in the Museum’s temporary exhibition space. By popular demand the mini- exhibition ‘What Story Will You Tell?’ the story of Sadako Sasaki is also on display. A particular favourite with children visiting the Museum.

  • Address: 10 Piece Hall Yard, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD1 1PJ Email: info@peacemuseum.org.uk. Telephone: 01274 780241. Mobile: 07807 – 348286 (Education). Website: peacemuseum.org.uk. Opening hours: Currently open Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays 10 am to 4 pm. Entrance is free, but as museum is a charity with no public funding or grant aid, they welcome visitor donations no matter how small. They are open for group visits, school visits, education work and to general visitors at alternative times (day, evenings and weekends) by appointment. Please feel free to contact them to discuss your requirements. There is usually a moderate charge for group visits of £30. Please note that the Museum is located up some 60 steps and the building does not have a lift.