Bohemia Village Voice

Hastings Museum has been closed for some two years to undergo significant redevelopment, including the building of an extension, designed by architect Thomas Ford. According to Displays Manager Beatrice Cole, the project has not been without its hiccups, and the museum staff have had to work in difficult circumstances to get ready for the scheduled opening. ‘Not long after they started work, the builders found asbestos in large amounts. The staff had to be evacuated from the building while that was removed. Obviously, that meant the builders were still here when we came back, so we’ve had to work in a very dusty environment for several months. But these things never go smoothly – you just have to get on with it.’
The museum redevelopment project has cost in excess of £1 million, the main portion of which has come from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Additional money has been provided by Hastings Council and Interreg, an EU organisation that exists to promote cooperation between neighbouring regions of different countries – in this case South-east England and Northern France. According to Celia Edwards, the project manager acting for Hastings Council in regard to the museum extension, ‘An important aspect of the funding proposal submitted to these bodies was the emphasis on greatly improved disabled access to all parts of the museum, and thus there are new lifts and ramps in both the existing and the newly built sections of the building.’
This theme of accessibility extends to the exhibits themselves. Many of the new displays are interactive, with visitors being able to access a variety of information – including original recordings, photos and film footage – through touch-sensitive computer screens. As Beatrice Cole explained, ‘In the new room devoted to Hastings during the 20th century, for example, there is an interactive display on the White Rock Pavilion. This includes a recording made at the venue – now the White Rock Theatre – of the Hastings Municipal Orchestra, which before the Second World War used to broadcast live to the nation following the King’s Speech on Christmas Day each year.
‘On the opposite side of the room is a mannikin of a 1960s Mod astride a Lambretta scooter specially made up to look authentic for the period. This area commemorates the infamous mid-sixties rivalry between the Mods and Rockers [see picture, this page], which in 1964 flared into trouble in many of Britain’s coastal towns. The social unrest of that period culminated in the Battle of Hastings 1964, as it became known, which took place over the August Bank Holiday, and the museum display includes film footage of those events. In the same room there are also cabinets given over to the history of the seaside and the Punch and Judy Show [see picture, this page], as well as interactive displays on Robert Tressell and pioneering borough engineer Sydney Little.’
Elsewhere on the ground floor, an entire room is devoted to John Logie Baird [see picture, this page], focusing on what he did during his time in Hastings, and including a replica of his original equipment. The museum’s most prized recent acquisition – Hastings: Fish Market of the Sands, Early Morning, 1924 – the watercolour by J.M.W. Turner, is also displayed along with other paintings and drawings in the Long Gallery [see picture], which joins the 20th century room to the Durbar Hall. Leading off from there one of the new extension’s additional rooms is devoted to the Brassey family, who bequeathed their collection of ethnographic art to the museum. This is housed in the Durbar Hall’s Upper Gallery.
Continuing upstairs, the museum’s collection of material relating to Grey Owl [picture opposite page] has been redisplayed, along with other Native American/First Nation artefacts, including a magnificent feathered headdress that once belonged to Chief Iron Tail. There is also a new room devoted to the Inuit people of subarctic Canada.
Finally, the two rooms that comprised the art gallery remain as they were. But the museum seems to have pulled off a bit of a coup for its first exhibition of the new era. The opening show is given over to a private collection of previously unseen works by renowned contemporary British painter Gary Hume, while the exhibition that follows later this year will feature work by the equally celebrated Chapman Brothers, whose family connections with the town are well known. In time the museum is also selling new postcards and guidebooks, to be sold in the new foyer/shop area created to the left of the main entrance.