The National Lottery funding will help the museum realise its ambitions of making its collections and displays ‘more accessible and inclusive’
Vestry House Museum has been awarded a £150,000 grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to support its refurbishment.
The museum says the funding will help it deliver the first phase of a three-and-a-half year project to make the museum’s collections and displays more accessible, inclusive, and relevant to local residents and visitors from further afield.
During the first year, the funding will be used to “develop and test displays co-curated with local community groups” in preparation for reopening the museum in 2026.
Waltham Forest Council has appointed architecture firm Studio Weave, who redesigned Lea Bridge Library, to lead the £4.5m refurbishment project.
The revitalisation is set to include improved disability and general access, new creative workspaces and a café in the garden.
The council has committed £4.5m to the redevelopment after receiving a total of £17m from the government’s Levelling Up fund. The money was granted to the council to boost Walthamstow’s “cultural offer”.
The Walthamstow museum says the National Lottery funding will also help it “explore how” to establish displays of objects in places across the borough, as well as aid a digitisation project that will make the museum and archive collections accessible online.
With the development grant, the museum have been able to support the hiring of a curator for a fixed term of twelve months.
The museum currently receives around 22,000 visitors a year, compared to over 100,000 yearly visitors at the William Morris Gallery which was revamped in 2012. The council are planning to increase visitor numbers to 60,000 and diversify the visitor demographics by inviting school visits and hosting 150 free events.
The 18th century Grade II listed building was constructed in 1730 to house the parish workhouse and was later used as a police station, an armoury, a builders’ merchants and a private home before opening to the public in 1931 as a local history museum.
It is home to the borough’s archives and local studies library which contains 18th and 19th century documents on the men, women, and children who worked there.
The museum has a collection of more than 100,000 historical objects and themed displays that tell the story of the borough. Its collection includes the famous Bremer car, a Victorian parlour, toys, a photo archive and its volunteer-run garden.
Ahead of the works, Waltham Forest Archives and Local Studies Library moved from Vestry House into their new home in Chingford Assembly Hall in December 2024.
Meanwhile, refurbishment works at the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow mean its art displays will be closed from Monday 10th March to Friday 4th April.
In 2024, the Gallery received £417,990 of funding from Arts Council England’s Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND) to address critical thermal performance issues within the Grade II* listed building.
These improvements are part of the gallery’s 75th anniversary programme, and will improve thermal insulation, mechanical cooling and ventilation in the display rooms.
You can find out more by following Vestry House Museum on Instagram here
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