Canterbury Royal Museum & Art Gallery with Buffs Regimental Museum
Canterbury Royal Museum and Art Gallery
High Street
Canterbury
UK
Tel: + 44 (0)1227 452 747
Email: museums@canterbury.gov.uk
Now closed to the public for major redevelopment. Due to re-open in the summer of 2011.
Royal Museum and Art Gallery with Buffs Regimental Museum
The art gallery is the major space in the area for the visual arts. The annual programme is wide ranging, with exhibitions of both contemporary and historical work.
The Buffs Gallery at the Beaney Institute in Canterbury closed to the public on Saturday 8 November 2008 as part of preparatory work leading to the closure of the whole building for restoration and refurbishment.
The museum collections of The Buffs (the former Royal East Kent Regiment) belong to the National Army Museum, as a result of the ownership transfer made by Buffs regimental trustees in 2000.
Therefore, National Army Museum staff will be responsible for the professional packing of the collections and move to the museum's London base, where their conservators will begin the lengthy job of cleaning and conservation to be ready for the Beaney reopening in 2011.
The amount of time this specialist work will take is one of the reasons why The Buffs Gallery was among the first of the displays in the Beaney to be closed. There is also a considerable amount of work to be carried out to the space currently occupied by the Buffs, and this could not be started safely while the collections were in place.
Canterbury City Council's Deputy Leader, Cllr Jean Law, said: New displays about The Buffs, incorporating collections on loan from the National Army Museum, will be part of the reopened Beaney, so the removal is only temporary.
We are delighted to be working in partnership with the National Army Museum, and to have their conservation expertise to enhance this collection. The displays have significant relevance for local residents and have brought enjoyment to thousands of people over the years, and we thank the museum for that.
Director of the National Army Museum, Dr Alan Guy, said: The NAM Council, its governing body, looks forward to continuing to work with Canterbury City Council and all our friends in the city to tell the story of the Buffs in Canterbury.
The Beaney - work begins inside (8 June 09)
Emptying the Beaney Institute of all it contained was never going to be an easy task, but the job is now coming to an end.
Staff of both councils - a joint project between Canterbury City Council and Kent County Council - have had to pack up countless books, pictures, ceramics and all he office equipment that had been needed for the museum, gallery and library services. The building closed at the end of February.
Internal scaffolding was then erected to enable staff and specialists to get to the painting collections, many of which were hung high up to use all available space. One particular challenge was the removal of TS Cooper's huge painting of Charlie the Bull from the main stairwell.
Although the library was soon relocated to 35 Pound Lane and museum collections moved to the Museum of Canterbury in Stour Street, it was just the start of other work inside the building, which has continued unseen to the public eye.
All fixtures and fittings of the museum and library have been removed from the building's three floors, and showcases moved out.
Partitions erected in the course of the building's 100-year history have been carefully removed, in some places revealing the early colour decoration.
And elsewhere the structure has been investigated to see if there are any problem areas. All this was work that could only be done when the public was no longer in the building.
Three months of archaeological investigations will be starting soon, ahead of the main building work.
Photo Copyright © Peter Collinson 1995, All rights reserved
