Letter: Council Should Call Time On Museum

Published on: 14 Feb, 2019
Updated on: 14 Feb, 2019

Guildford Museum Photo Surrey Advertiser

From Stephen Mansbridge

former leader of Guildford Borough Council

This is a project that was first put forward in around 2009. A withdrawn lottery bid, which together with the design submission cost the council over £150,000 with no positive outcome.

The reality was that the plan was poor and was unlikely to have revived visitor numbers, but would have cost the council much. As leader in 2013, I concluded that the museum was in the wrong place and that it was uneconomic to revive it. It costs the council some £200,000 a year in subsidy and for years the Surrey Archaeological Society was allowed to occupy part of the building and a store at Slyfield for free.

This project has cost the taxpayer dearly and, after ten years, there is very little to show for the £2.5 million it has cost over that period. By contrast, the council subsidises the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre by £250,000 a year and gains great value for local residents as a result.

My view remains that the museum should be re-opened as a modern visitors’ centre in a new location in the town and operated as a business, and not as a costly white elephant, which even the opening of the Ivy Restaurant in the Tunsgate Quarter has not improved.

Responses to Letter: Council Should Call Time On Museum

Russell Morris Reply

February 14, 2019 at 4:02 pm

If the museum is in the wrong place, it is only because passing trade does not penetrate far down Quarry Street. But then, the building backs directly onto the very popular and well used Castle Grounds. That, surely, is the key to bringing in punters and I’m sure something of which that the museum proponents are very well aware. But that needs investment to exploit.

I fail quite to grasp how Mr Mansbridge’s reference to the Ivy Restaurant relates to the Museum. I can suggest that if Guildford truly acquired a white elephant, tourists would flock to see it.