Yesterday I went to four museums run by outer SW London boroughs.
You can only do all four on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday.
Below is my summary addressed across seven categories.
I also awarded a score out of five to help me decide which is best.
Museum of Richmond Open: Tue-Fri 11-5, Sat 10-4 (closed Sun, Mon) Address: 2nd Floor, Old Town Hall, Richmond, TW9 1TP Website:museumofrichmond.com
Building: Top floor of the Old Town Hall, bang in the town centre near Richmond Bridge. Feels very 'Victorian but upgraded in the 1980s', i.e. an out-of-date marble warren with glum stairs. Welcome: Full-on greeting at the desk starting with the mandated question "Have you been before?", then a scripted summary, then a strong hint that donations are appreciated. Galleries: One big long room with various alcoves. Separate temporary exhibition space behind entrance. Feels like it's not been updated much since the Queen opened it in 1988. History: Richmond overflows with history, kicking off with a Tudor palace and skipping on through Georgian buildings, Victorian expansion and the World Wars. Pretty much nothing post-1945. Detailed background information to read. Ignores everything in the borough west of the Thames because that's the domain of Twickenham Museum instead. Stuff: Plenty of cabinets and old things. Bits of old masonry, models, palace remnants, obligatory pots and jars, innards of workhouse clock, WW2 bomb map. Bamber Gascoigne narrates a video. Extras: Little gift shop. Exhibition of colourful artistic quilts that was supposed to close at the end of September but they haven't replaced it yet. Family trails updated monthly. Regular programme of events including talks, LEGO Club and crafty workshops. Summary: The whole place feels loved and creative, if a bit behind the times. ★★★⯨
→ catch a half-hourly train or take the 65 bus →
Kingston Museum Open: Thu-Sat 10-5 (closed Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed) Address: Wheatfield Way, Kingston upon Thames KT1 2PS Website:kingstonheritage.org.uk
Building: Purpose-built in 1904 alongside a Carnegie Library, bang in the town centre near the shops. Looks very museum-y from the dual carriageway. Welcome: Bit of a nod from the bloke on the desk. No pressure. Galleries: Just the three, plus a separate art gallery upstairs. First 'Ancient Origins' which includes a very old Saxon log boat. Then the larger 'Town of Kings', which kicks off with an unconvincing Athelstan waxwork. The Eadweard Muybridge gallery is more of a connecting corridor. All feels very very old school. History: Kingston overflows with history, much of it much earlier than Richmond's. Few other towns can compete with 'several kings were crowned here'. But there's more in several themed displays around the central mock-up of the Market House, some of it period-related and much of it connected to famous residents. Eadweard's pioneering photography deserves its elevated status. Stuff: Plenty of it including dug-up-stuff, military stuff, a workplace clock and a model of old Kingston. Hurrah there's a map where you press a button and a red light lights up, because all museums of a certain age had those. Also look out for Snappity the museum mascot, a mechanical wooden toy made by the Sopwith Aviation Company in 1919, not an actual crocodile. Extras: The only exhibition that changes is upstairs in the Art Gallery, where a celebration of the fashion Haus of Sibling should have been cleared away by now but hasn't. Also I managed to finish the Knit Wits puzzle trail despite the oddly worded clues and the extremely obvious solution. Summary: It's lovely that it's still here, but feels even more behind the times than Richmond. ★★★
Building: 17th century Wandle Cottage overlooks Carshalton Ponds, and is by far the loveliest building in the loveliest location of any of these four museums. Welcome: Would have been charming except the lady on the desk was chatting as I slipped in so instead I got a charming goodbye. Galleries: It's a former family home so has loads of rooms, each differently themed, from the table-centred billiard room to the bedroom full of old toys. Quite a lot of narrow stairs to negotiate, which only adds to the atmosphere unless you can't get around easily, in which case be aware that the age of the building mitigates against a lift. History: It turns out that the borough of Sutton has a quite a history, although most of that is "rural idyll with lavender farms gets swallowed up by nation's capital." Every part of the borough gets a fair shot, be it Beddington, Cheam or wherever, which alas isn't the case in the other three borough museums. Stuff: Art and photographs are doing a lot of heavy lifting here, also objects that might typically have been found anywhere from Victorian times onwards. There are perhaps more old things at Sutton's other historic museum which is Whitehall in Cheam. Extras: I couldn't get into one room because the fortnightly embroidery group were holding court. I could get into the garden, the art gallery, the little shop and the cosy cafe, which because it's Oktober has 6% German lager on tap. The volunteers that run the place have truly created a buzzing little hub. Summary: Local and charming, which when you have a history like Sutton's is the best you can hope for. No spoilers, but it's my favourite of the four. ★★★★
→ catch the SL7 bus →
Museum of Croydon Open: Wed-Sat 10-4.30 (closed Sun, Mon, Tue) Address: Katharine Street, Croydon CR9 1ET Website:museumofcroydon.com
Building: Part of the redbrick 19th-century town hall which looks suitably grand outside, but once inside it's just a big modern space subdivided for municipal reasons and architecturally bland. Welcome: Nothing in the shared lobby, which was quite busy with librarygoers. But if you make it upstairs an underused bloke sits at a welcome desk covered with leaflets, and he was lovely but heaven knows why a bankrupt council pays for him to be there. Galleries: Three. One was out of bounds because they were clearing out the Grayson Perry exhibition. One has a new exhibition called Shaping Croydon celebrating placemaking and identity. And the other one's entirely separate downstairs with a permanent collection of old artefacts bequeathed to the council in 1964. The interesting upstairs gallery with the bubblecar I remember from my last visit appears to have been emptied and/or sequestrated. Stuff: The downstairs collection includes some Anglo-Saxon remnants but most of the items are old European artefacts of zero local relevance. The Shaping Croydon gallery has enjoyable ephemera from the opening of the 12-sided NLA Tower and an old film but is seriously devoid of broader coverage. I actually asked the nice bloke on the way out if that was it, and alas it was. History: Croydon's a fascinating borough but you'd never guess from this vacuous space. In particular Shaping Croydon feels like a council ego trip filling as large a space as possible with occasional photos, post-its and buzzwords. The Mayor's very pleased with it, but the emperor has no clothes. Extras: No. You could get a book out nextdoor I guess. Summary: The council has more urgent things to fund, and it shows. Still, at least it still has a borough museum which is more than Barnet, Camden, Greenwich, Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington & Chelsea, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth and Westminster do. ★
