New Chichester museum

Work on Chichester Museum gets underway
to create a 21st century museum celebrating the area’s history and heritage got under way yesterday (Wednesday). A turf-cutting ceremony took place to mark the beginning of the £6.9 museum which is expected to open in autumn 2011.

The site is located in Tower Street where the remains of Roman baths were discovered in the 1970s. The 1,300sq ft museum will be built on piles to protect the archaeology underneath.

Once open, visitors will be able to find out about life in the district over the past 500,000 years as well as see the baths.

Spread over three floors it will provide two galleries, a learning room, a research room, a social history store, a shop while the top-floor gallery will have views towards the cathedral.

Chichester District Council has funded the museum and one of the country’s leading architects,  Keith Williams Architects, has designed the building.

The council’s director of health and community wellbeing John Kingdon said: “This turf cutting marks the start of the construction of an exciting project.

“The new museum and heritage centre will give residents the opportunity to view our diverse collections from the district, of people’s activities over the past half a million years.”

The new centre will replace the district museum in Little London which is not accessible for people with mobility problems and cannot accommodate all of the museum’s displays and artefacts.

Romans in Sussex

Chichester Museum History