Newarke Houses Museum is composed of two historic houses: Chantry House built in about 1513 by William Wygston and Skeffington House built between 1560 and 1583 by Sir Thomas Skeffington. The buildings were opened as a museum in 1940 but Chantry House was badly damaged in an air raid the same year and fully restored in the 1950s.
The museum displays include a room setting of the 1600s and also the 1950s and 1970s; the story of 20th century Leicester; a cinema experience; a collection of toys from Tudor to present day and a recreated Victorian street scene. The Museum of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment is within the same building.