A very, very local museum all in French in the heart of Montreal‘s Centre-Sud community is a must-see to learn about how the industrial revolution impacted work conditions and leisure in the city. I can think of no better-suited province than labor-friendly Quebec to interpret the issues of child labor, meagre wages, and eventual deindustrialization.
In the 1960s, the area lost almost half of its population due to a shift from industrial work to the tertiary sector. Factories were deserted, a cathedral was torn down to make space for a university, and children played in abandoned cars. During its recovery, the community adopted different identities and was no longer anchored by the church. Artists formed a cultural pillar and the gay village sprung up here.
The museum is adaptively reusing a bathhouse, so it also says a bit about the hygiene conditions of the time. At the turn of the 20th century, 75% of homes did not have a bath, so the bathhouse provided an essential service to the population. They put their money where their mouth is, too. Anyone with a valid public transport fare gets half-price entry to the museum of working-class people. The pool is an exhibition space that still retains its original tiling.
