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 Spring of 2012.
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. This gallery is now closed for the redevelopment period.
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 were be responsible for the professional packing of the collections and move to the museum's London base, where their conservators have begun the lengthy job of cleaning and conservation to be ready for the Beaney reopening in 2012.
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.
Canterbury’s Beaney Art Museum and Library project news
The blue-painted hoardings snaking around the Best Lane carpark, and now across the High Street façade too, give clear indication of major work in progress on the second of Canterbury’s major civic projects – the renewal and extension of Dr Beaney’s Institute. Only a few streets away the new Marlowe Theatre, already ahead with structure, is rising out of the ground.
Excavation completed
Also behind the Beaney, Canterbury Archaeological Trust staff have been busy investigating the ground where the extension is to be built which will provide a second (and more accessible) entrance facing onto Best Lane. Their major excavation has recently been completed, and results are being written up and finds examined and conserved for future display in the building.
Contractors at work
Inside the present building contractors have investigated its fabric to check that it all meets current regulations and is structurally sound. They have uncovered various partitions and claddings to ensure they are free from injurious materials such as Asbestos, and have now protected internal architectural features, woodwork and decorative mouldings against possible damage during the coming repair and construction work.
The interior of the Beaney is quite empty, and without its museum collections and library books for the first time since it opened in 1899, it echoes to every footstep and noise.
The closure story
For the museum’s collection the emptying process was lengthy because of the quantity of material on display, and the added contents of the administration office then housed in part of the basement. Everything in the museum was photographed, condition-checked and listed, and then individually wrapped and packed up for removal by the museum team.
Temporary displays at Museum of Canterbury
Every item had to have a new temporary home, and so had to have its specific destination earmarked in the pre-planning work. The Museum of Canterbury at the Poor Priests’ Hospital in Stour Street was took almost everything of these collections: as much as possible was placed on display, using what had been the temporary exhibitions space to show some of the major works from the paintings collection, with a case of bronzes and the splendid bust of the Red Dean by Epstein. The Van Dyck is here, alongwith the Laura Knight hop pickers, many visitors; favourite The Little Girl at the Door, the portrait of Chaucer and the Canterbury Pilgrims, and quite a few others. And a small selection of ceramics is also on show.
Thomas Sidney Cooper display
Elsewhere in the Museum a storeroom has been opened up as a gallery for many of the Thomas Sidney Cooper paintings; and in the entrance hall as well as a number of pictures there is a showcase with one of the treasures of The Buffs Museum – the Albuhera centrepiece. The rest of that museum collection, which was the first to be removed from the Beaney, has gone to the National Army Museum which owns it and will be conserving a number of items which will return to be part of the new displays.
All other available space was pressed into use with pictures going up on spare walls, and with one of the education rooms converted into a gallery store with temporary racks installed to maximise the use of its space.
The largest pictures and furniture were moved by a removal company, but otherwise everything else was moved by the museum team led by the City Council’s Curator Ken Reedie. And nothing was damaged or lost in any of the process.
Planning for re-opening
Museum staff, now busy with the detailed work which continues on the project, will soon be detailing out the timings and sequencing of returning collections to the refurbished and extended Beaney for the Spring of 2012.
Partners
The Beaney development is a partnership project of Canterbury City Council which provides the museum and gallery services and owns the Beaney, and Kent County Council which is the library provider. Both councils are investing in the project which has received major grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the South East England Development Agency.
Photo Copyright © Peter Collinson 1995, All rights reserved
