The Grosvenor Museum, Chester (Grosvenor Museum (Chester))

Member Name: micksheff

Product:	Grosvenor Museum (Chester)
Date:	08/03/09 (152 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free admission, plenty to see and do

Disadvantages: Not fully accessible by disabled visitors

Chester is a city steeped in history that dates back to the Roman times and beyond so it is not surprising to learn that it has a large museum to serve the purpose of showing off its rich heritage. In fact Chester has several different specialised museums like DEWA the Roman museum and the Military Museum but the Grosvenor Museum is by far its largest museum.

I suppose that it would be fair to describe the Grosvenor Museum as Chester's general museum. It is housed within an impressive Grade 2 listed building right in the heart of the city centre and since admission is free it's a great starting point for any visitor to the city to learn about its past. It opened in 1886 with its full title that it still holds today, which is rather a mouthful; The Grosvenor Museum of Natural History and Archaeology, with Schools of Science and Art, for Chester, Cheshire and North Wales. Hardly surprising therefore that it is colloquially known simply as the Grosvenor Museum.

Its name is taken from the street on which it stands: Grosvenor Street, which is turn, comes from the family name of the Dukes of Westminster who were the largest landowners in the city. The first Duke of Westminster officially opened the museum on the 9th August 1886.

The exterior of the building is rather impressive, with a red brick façade that makes it stand out from the other buildings around it. The entrance on the main street is less conspicuous with a short flight of steps leading up to entrance, which is elevated above the street level. In 1999 the museum received a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund that enabled it to be modified to make it more accessible for disabled visitors. It should however be noted that whilst there is now an alternate entrance into the building for wheelchair users that the age and original design of the building has meant that only the lower floors of the museum are completely accessible by those with disabilities.

Stepping inside the building it is instantly obvious that this is an impressive building. There is a reception desk just inside the doorway. Whilst a grand staircase lined with portraits of some of Chester's most notable figures leads to the upper floors. The ceilings are high and when I visited here a couple of weeks ago I was instantly reminded of stepping into one of the many English country houses that I have visited. Before you head off upstairs though there's plenty to be seen on the ground floor first and there's a basement too.

The first room I discovered was an exhibition area set out quite plainly in a style reminiscent of a school classroom. There were rows of seats positioned around a large TV screen that was showing a short documentary of around 15 minutes in length that covered the history of the city from the prehistoric time when the dinosaurs were its only inhabitants right up to the present day. After spending the last couple of hours trudging around Chester I was thankful of the short rest and found this documentary a perfect tool to whet my appetite and make me wonder what the museum had in store.

It came of little surprise to find a room next door full of display cabinets that were packed with artefacts that had been uncovered from archaeological digs. These were mainly from the Roman era. These displays however serve only as a teaser for what lies beyond for the next area is transformed to look like Chester might have appeared during its Roman heyday. On the walls there are brightly coloured artist impressions that look so realistic they almost leap out of the wall and come alive. Scattered around the floor space there are huge stone tombs that carry Latin inscriptions. There are quite literally dozens of these tombstones, some of which are a couple of metres tall, they stand like gigantic gravestones in an old graveyard but they are much older than anything I had ever seen in a churchyard before. Some of the more important stones carry drawings and carvings in addition their inscriptions and beneath them there are placards deciphering what the carvings portray and also a translation of the text. There are no specific dates on any of them but most of them refer to the person dying within the reign of a specific Emperor and can therefore be accurately dated to within two or three decades. The stones seemed to span around three centuries and ranged between the period 150BC and 150AD. They have all been found locally.

At the end of the Roman display visitors find themselves inside a gift shop which led me to think that I'd probably managed to walk around the museum back to front. I managed to resist the temptation of walking through the shop and instead re-traced my steps back to where I entered. The basement area that I mentioned earlier can be accessed either via a flight of steps or by a lift. There are no displays in this area, just toilets (including ones for disabled patrons and baby changing facilities) and there also seemed to be various research rooms and study areas.

The upper floor can only be accessed via a staircase and is therefore unfortunately out of bounds to those that are unable to climb them. This floor contains two large areas set aside for art, one with what I would naively refer to as "standard" art and the other "modern" art. Amongst the collections of paintings are 23 paintings by Louise Rayner, the largest number held in any public collection. There is also a room with pottery, glassware and silverware and the Mayors Chamber. The Mayors Chamber is a room set out to resemble the office of the town's mayor and there are a number of authentic articles of relevance in this room.

The final room was dedicated to natural history and contained a number of stuffed animals, bird and insects that the Victorians so delighted in collecting as trophies. Many of these exhibits were originally part of a collection held by the Chester Society of Natural Science, which was founded by Charles Kingsley in 1871. This is the most interactive part of the museum and in addition to the animals there are also microscopes when you can look at things like mosquitoes and there are touchy feely displays too.

Adjacent to the Grosvenor Museum there is another building known simply as 20 Castle Street. This Town House depicts life in Chester during the 17th century and has been fully reconstructed to look like it would have appeared over the centuries. The dining and kitchen display is called "Mary in her Victorian Kitchen" whilst elsewhere in this house there is a Georgian nursery and drawing room and a typical Edwardian bathroom.

The Grosvenor Museum has been under the ownership and control of Chester City Council since 1938 and today receives well over 100,000 visitors every year. In 1993, the year that the Roman stones exhibition was added the museum won the North West of England's Museum of the year award.

The Grosvenor Museum is open daily at the following times:
Monday to Saturday - from 10.30am until 5pm
Sunday - from 1pm until 4pm.

Grosvenor Museum
27 Grosvenor Street
Chester,
CH1 2DD

Telephone - 01244 402008
Fax - 01244 347587

Summary: Chesters' largest museum