The Museum of East Dorset

Wimborne

In addition we had to create universal access to the first floor of the gallery, enhance the visual connections from within the property to the garden (one of the site’s main attractions), increase exhibition space throughout the buildings and provide environmentally controlled cases & displays with the potential to create flexible and changing displays.  Crucial to the success of this project delivery concerned visitor access and circulation due to multiple floor level changes to the first floor, along with the care and presentation of the museum’s collection. This meant undertaking conservation works to targeted areas of the building to provide the opportunity for visitors to see the layers of history within the building fabric, showcasing the complex and multifarious evolution of the building.

The award-winning Priest’s House Museum and Garden, founded by Hilda Coles in 1962, is located within an historic building on a site in the centre of Wimborne, in the Wimborne Conservation Area. The building occupies an original burgage plot - stretching from the main facade and the street frontage to a water course at the rear. The building is a Grade II* Listed Building, with later extensions, and a 20th century cafe and archive building set to the rear of the garden site. Our remit was to improve the poor public visibility of the museum on the street frontage (which housed a confusing shop and ticket offer), unifying the current Museum and Tourist Information Centre, by providing an accessible entrance to the museum for all.