diff --git a/packages/core/src/browser/widgets/index.ts b/packages/core/src/browser/widgets/index.ts
index 52f70e2a216c4..95d023600ce39 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/browser/widgets/index.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/browser/widgets/index.ts
@@ -15,7 +15,5 @@
  ********************************************************************************/
 
 export * from './widget';
-export * from './virtual-renderer';
-export * from './virtual-widget';
 export * from './react-renderer';
 export * from './react-widget';
diff --git a/packages/core/src/browser/widgets/virtual-renderer.ts b/packages/core/src/browser/widgets/virtual-renderer.ts
deleted file mode 100644
index 18f6cf5bbd8ba..0000000000000
--- a/packages/core/src/browser/widgets/virtual-renderer.ts
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,89 +0,0 @@
-/********************************************************************************
- * Copyright (C) 2017 TypeFox and others.
- *
- * This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the
- * terms of the Eclipse Public License v. 2.0 which is available at
- * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-2.0.
- *
- * This Source Code may also be made available under the following Secondary
- * Licenses when the conditions for such availability set forth in the Eclipse
- * Public License v. 2.0 are satisfied: GNU General Public License, version 2
- * with the GNU Classpath Exception which is available at
- * https://www.gnu.org/software/classpath/license.html.
- *
- * SPDX-License-Identifier: EPL-2.0 OR GPL-2.0 WITH Classpath-exception-2.0
- ********************************************************************************/
-
-import { h, VirtualNode, VirtualText, VirtualDOM } from '@phosphor/virtualdom';
-
-// Phosphor elements can be null, so we need to disable our no-null rule
-// tslint:disable:no-null-keyword
-
-/*
- * @deprecated use ReactRenderer instead. VirtualRenderer will be removed with the next major release.
- */
-export class VirtualRenderer {
-    readonly host: HTMLElement;
-    constructor(
-        host?: HTMLElement
-    ) {
-        this.host = host || document.createElement('div');
-    }
-
-    render(): void {
-        VirtualRenderer.render(this.doRender(), this.host);
-    }
-
-    protected doRender(): h.Child {
-        return null;
-    }
-}
-
-export namespace VirtualRenderer {
-    /*
-     * @deprecated use ReactDOM.render instead. VirtualRenderer will be removed with the next major release.
-     */
-    export function render(child: h.Child, host: HTMLElement): void {
-        const content = toContent(child);
-        VirtualDOM.render(content, host);
-    }
-    export function flatten(children: h.Child[]): h.Child {
-        return children.reduce((prev, current) => merge(prev, current), null);
-    }
-
-    export function merge(left: h.Child | undefined, right: h.Child | undefined): h.Child {
-        if (!right) {
-            return left || null;
-        }
-        if (!left) {
-            return right;
-        }
-        const result = left instanceof Array ? left : [left];
-        if (right instanceof Array) {
-            result.push(...right);
-        } else {
-            result.push(right);
-        }
-        return result;
-    }
-
-    export function toContent(children: h.Child): VirtualNode | VirtualNode[] | null {
-        if (!children) {
-            return null;
-        }
-        if (typeof children === 'string') {
-            return new VirtualText(children);
-        }
-        if (children instanceof Array) {
-            const nodes: VirtualNode[] = [];
-            for (const child of children) {
-                if (child) {
-                    const node = typeof child === 'string' ? new VirtualText(child) : child;
-                    nodes.push(node);
-                }
-            }
-            return nodes;
-        }
-        return children;
-    }
-}
diff --git a/packages/core/src/browser/widgets/virtual-widget.ts b/packages/core/src/browser/widgets/virtual-widget.ts
deleted file mode 100644
index b315f81ff7d59..0000000000000
--- a/packages/core/src/browser/widgets/virtual-widget.ts
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,60 +0,0 @@
-/********************************************************************************
- * Copyright (C) 2017 TypeFox and others.
- *
- * This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the
- * terms of the Eclipse Public License v. 2.0 which is available at
- * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-2.0.
- *
- * This Source Code may also be made available under the following Secondary
- * Licenses when the conditions for such availability set forth in the Eclipse
- * Public License v. 2.0 are satisfied: GNU General Public License, version 2
- * with the GNU Classpath Exception which is available at
- * https://www.gnu.org/software/classpath/license.html.
- *
- * SPDX-License-Identifier: EPL-2.0 OR GPL-2.0 WITH Classpath-exception-2.0
- ********************************************************************************/
-
-import { injectable } from 'inversify';
-import { h } from '@phosphor/virtualdom';
-import { DisposableCollection } from '../../common';
-import { BaseWidget, Message } from './widget';
-import { VirtualRenderer } from './virtual-renderer';
-
-/*
- * @deprecated use ReactWidget instead. VirtualWidget will be removed with the next major release.
- */
-@injectable()
-export class VirtualWidget extends BaseWidget {
-
-    protected readonly onRender = new DisposableCollection();
-    protected childContainer?: HTMLElement;
-    protected scrollOptions = {
-        suppressScrollX: true
-    };
-
-    protected onUpdateRequest(msg: Message): void {
-        super.onUpdateRequest(msg);
-        const child = this.render();
-        if (!this.childContainer) {
-            // if we are adding scrolling, we need to wrap the contents in its own div, to not conflict with the virtual dom algo.
-            if (this.scrollOptions) {
-                this.childContainer = this.createChildContainer();
-                this.node.appendChild(this.childContainer);
-            } else {
-                this.childContainer = this.node;
-            }
-        }
-        VirtualRenderer.render(child, this.childContainer);
-        this.onRender.dispose();
-    }
-
-    protected render(): h.Child {
-        // tslint:disable-next-line:no-null-keyword
-        return null;
-    }
-
-    protected createChildContainer(): HTMLElement {
-        return document.createElement('div');
-    }
-
-}