Opinion: Guildford Museum – No Time for Faint Hearts

Published on: 25 Feb, 2019
Updated on: 4 Apr, 2019

By Gavin Morgan

If Guildford Borough Council fails to proceed with the Guildford Museum project it will confirm that they are indeed an authority that knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

The project is now being professionally managed, has adopted a business-like approach and is ready to proceed to the next phase. Last Monday it was received positively by the Executive Advisory Board and now goes to the Executive for approval on March 19.

I was sorry to read former council leader, Stephen Mansbridge’s article, “Council Should Call Time on Museum”. It represents a view held by a minority, admittedly an influential one, at Guildford Borough Council but it is not backed up by evidence. Had Mr Mansbridge waited a week and come along to Monday night’s council review of the project he would have seen how outdated such views are.

Stephen Mansbridge’s letter on Guildford museum

The current museum project is light years away from the lottery bids the council made when he was leader. Those were run by officers who had to fit writing the submissions around their day jobs. The council has learned hard lessons from the experience and appointed professional museum consultants to take a business-like approach to the problem.

Julia Holbery Associates are managing the project, there is a business plan by Fourth Street and interpretation and design by ZMMA who worked on Watts Gallery, one of the biggest local heritage successes of recent years.

This is not some half-hearted attempt to upgrade a museum for Sunday afternoon visitors. Guildford is the historic county town of Surrey and it is woefully behind other towns in not having a proper museum. The smaller towns of Godalming and Farnham offer better experiences and there are exciting museums in towns all over the country making a big difference to the local economy.

And that is the point. This is about doing something for Guildford as a whole. Evidence from other towns shows how heritage can make a difference by bringing people into the town and raising its profile. Guildford has a historic character worth preserving but it is also at the forefront of the satellite and gaming industries and this is a chance to promote the town to the outside world.

The location is, of course, important, as Mr Mansbridge points out, but this has been looked into in great detail. The first part of this project reviewed several sites around the town including the library but none were found obtainable, suitable or workable and a new build was considered too expensive.

How the new museum (left) could form part of a wider Guildford Castle historic “hub” site.

By contrast, it was concluded that the existing location was the strongest. Uniquely, among potential sites, it is positioned right next to our fantastic Norman keep, set in the beautiful Castle Grounds that already attract 500,000 visitors each year. The museum buildings include a 17th-century house (not currently shown to its best advantage), a medieval chamber that would make a great display space and enough room for a modern extension.

The key ingredient, widely agreed, is to open up the back of the museum so that the thousands of visitors to the Castle Grounds can easily find it and be attracted to it.

Plan of one of how one of the three redeveloped floors could be as part of an envisioned new Guildford Museum showing, on the right, the critical entrance to the Castle Grounds. (Source ZMMA)

The redevelopment will not be cheap but if other towns can succeed why can’t we. A lot of effort will need to be put into fundraising and grant applications but the professional team on board have a track record of helping towns achieve success.

We do need to be ambitious. Research by Fourth Street shows that when museum’s make small improvements they seem to raise visitor numbers to around 40,000. However, the towns that invest properly, raise visitor numbers to around 100,000 and fuel the economy by providing an audience to local cafes and shops.

The Lightbox in Woking is one key example but there are many others in towns more like Guildford. Of course, this all has to be carefully worked out and a proper plan needs to be in place.

And that is why it is so important that Guildford Borough Council is behind this. If it were just a community project then the museum would be inward looking and focus purely on the heritage. Bt the new museum needs to be seen as an asset for the town as a whole, bringing a range of benefits.

On Monday we heard that the council is doing just that. Cllr Nikki Nelson-Smith, lead councillor for skills, arts and tourism, spoke in very strong terms about the benefits this would bring.

Cllr Nikki Nelson-Smith speaking at GBC’s Executive Advisory Board

She said: “… the corporate plan action is to “produce proposals for the development of the museum and castle site, to transform it into a lively visitor attraction and valued community resource.” There have been some recent comments in the press suggesting that what we are considering is just more of the same and that there is no point in pursuing the project because it is an expensive white elephant. This is categorically not the case.

“After years of prevarication, we have a vision to produce an attraction of an exceptional standard, not just an acceptable one – and now is not the time to waste all the hard work and money that has gone into developing our vision over the last couple of years. There will be a cost to the project and money will need to be raised, but the council put aside its contribution quite a while ago and we are not seeking to increase that.”

She left everyone in no doubt that most of the council is 100% behind this project. Indeed, she has been consistent in her message right throughout this project. The presentation of the project vision by Julia Holbery to the Executive Review Board was received positively with contributions from the Friends of the Museum and the Guildford Heritage Forum.

And that brings me on to another thing that this project has achieved. I run the Guildford Heritage Forum which brings together heritage groups and interested individuals. We were very critical of the council in the early days and it felt like this project would never get off the ground. Since the consultants have been on board there have been public consultations and efforts to reach out to stakeholders. This project is turning into a great example of how the council and the community can work together.

ZMMA’s cutaway cross-section of how a new museum could look. Castle Grounds on the left, Quarry Street on the right. Click to enlarge.

So I will end as I started and echo Cllr Nelson Smith. This council has invested three years of work, engaged with community groups across the borough and spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on consultants and consultations to work out the right way forward. Money has been put aside and the expertise is there to seek further funding.

It is utterly inconceivable that councillors will back away when this project goes to the Executive for approval on March 19. Guildford as a town, a borough and a community, as well as the council, have everything to gain.