Agenda item

Councillor Nikki Nelson-Smith advised that since the previous report to the EAB on 9 April 2018, the Council had progressed the development of Guildford Museum’s vision, audience development, display interpretation and architectural design options from the feasibility study stage to the concept stage.  The EAB’s previous comments to consider improvements to the Museum in a much wider context and on a single site had informed the revised project’s vision and scope and now provided greater opportunity to enhance the Museum offer and widen its audience.

This more expansive vision was now reflected in the work streams being delivered by the Council’s consultants providing architectural designs and interpretation planning, audience development, activity planning and business planning.  A preferred design for the site was emerging with a new build extension within the courtyard of the Museum, which took into account the spatial requirement of the business service model, interpretation of displays, activities, cafés, toilets and other facilities.  Challenges facing the existing site development continued to be its sensitive historic setting as having listed building and schedule ancient monument status.  A strategy was currently being developed to address these concerns.

In tandem with these developments, the Council continued to explore options for including potential partners such as the Carollian Wonderland Trust, Surrey Archaeological Society and Surrey Infantry Museum Regiment.  External grant opportunities such as the Heritage Lottery Fund were being explored as these would provide a significant contribution to meeting the cost of the new museum.

Consultant Julia Holberry gave a presentation in respect of the Museum project which was a theme in the Council’s Corporate Plan 2018-23.  The project featured a sponsor, a Working Group including Councillors and officers, stakeholders such as Friends of Guildford Museum and consultants.  A related public consultation had been carried out and discussions in three focus groups, a teacher group and interviews with schools and the University of Surrey had informed the project.

The presentation explained the vision for the Museum to become a hub for community engagement facilitating learning and creativity at a destination worth travelling to.  Touring displays and collections would maintain appeal and attract return visits and Guildford’s history would be brought up to date from 1945 onwards with a living memory of Guildford collection.  Elements of the project included a new extension, Castle Arch House, strong rooms, and a Carollian Wonderland Trust display area, over three floors.  Collections would feature living, working and playing in Guildford giving the local history some of which would be modern relating to computing and gaming.  The Wey Navigation, railways, gunpowder, World War 2 and brewing would feature on a stories map with a timeline showing key points from medieval times to present day.  Ada Lovelace, George Abbot, John Russell, Alan Turing, Lewis Carroll and the Dennis brothers were some of the notable people who would feature.

The Museum Activity Plan consisted of researching, digitising, co-creating galleries, innovation storey-telling, prestigious exhibitions, guided tours, digital trails into the town, collecting memories of Guildford and volunteering.

Challenges and uncertainties included costs, changing funding rules and a historic site that was difficult to develop leading to further costs.  The economic impact was a predicted visitor spend of £1.4 million per annum and creation of 18.5 direct and indirect jobs.  The benefits of the project were showcasing Guildford and all its achievements, an enhanced visitor experience, economic benefits and social benefits such as improved quality of life and wellbeing, school projects and work experience / apprenticeships.

Attendance at the meeting included two public speakers, Gavin Morgan of Guildford Heritage Forum and Honorary Freeman and Chair of the Friends of Guildford Museum Jen Powell, who spoke in favour of the Museum project and were appreciative of the report and grateful for work undertaken to date.

The following points arose from related questions and discussion:

·             The inclusion of the Surrey Infantry Museum Regiment was welcomed.

·             Although there had been some frustration owing to the slow progress achieved by the Working Group initially, the consultant had fostered relations and there was now more progress and enthusiasm, assisted by the ‘Your Stories, Your Museum’ initiative.

·             The overall indicative cost of the project taking the difficulties into account was £18 million, of which the Council would be contributing £6.5 million.  The remaining cost would be spent in phases and it was expected that £5 million would be obtained from the National Heritage Lottery Fund.  Other museums, including Watts Gallery at Compton and The Lightbox at Woking, had raised their own funding.

·             The location of the Museum adjacent to the Castle entrance was an advantage and was likely to encourage visitors.  The visitor numbers in 2017/18 had been 9,462 and benchmarking against similar offerings elsewhere led to a prediction that this number would increase to approximately 65,000 per annum in the future.

·             When the project was completed the site would consist of over 1,000 square metres of new build and 400 square metres of refurbished floor space doubling the presentation display space.

·             The EAB was pleased to note that two lifts would be provided at the Museum.

In summary, the Chairman confirmed that the Board supported the Museum project going forward and hoped that adequate funding could be secured.  It was suggested that the new Museum should be signposted to draw the public’s attention to its location.