On 23rd February the Executive of Guildford Borough Council agreed to close the Victorian schoolroom . The report into the closure stated that “the Heritage Service is currently under review and a range of desired outcomes have been agreed with Directors and various Councillors (see Appendix 1). These outcomes will help secure a long-term sustainable…
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Victorian Schoolroom Closure
On 23rd February the Council decided to close the Victorian Schoolroom in 39½ Castle Street as part of an ongoing review. The school opened in 2001 and has provide a unique education experience to around 2000 school children each year. The service just about covered is costs through charges to schools. The decision to sell…
North Street Development Update
Guildford Borough Council and St Edward Homes, a joint venture company owned by the Berkeley Group and M&G Real Estate, brought forward plans for the regeneration of the five acre North Street site in Guildford town centre. If planning permission was granted then GBC would sell its ownership in part of the site to the…
London Road Cycle Lane – on hold
It would be “madness” to go ahead with a Guildford road improvement scheme in the face of “huge opposition”, according to Surrey County Council’s leader. (source: Guildford Dragon News) The proposed closure of London Road in Burpham was due to start on Monday (January 9) but has been postponed for further consultation and was the…
The Future of Guildford Town Centre
This article follows the debate about the future shape of Guildford. Starting with view of Gavin Morgan it summarises the debate View Point The town is spending millions on a Master Plan but the reality seems to be we have no control over the future of our town. Developers turn up wanting to build enormous…
Medieval Guildford Imagined
A Guildford-based company which specialises in creating historical virtual reality experiences has produced a video of medieval Guildford town and castle. Historic VR Ltd, based in Quarry Street, has made the video available to Guildford Heritage to roughly coincide with and celebrate the Museum’s Video Games – Made in Guildford exhibition held in Summer of…
Can Britain avoid a battle over its history?
The Black Lives Matter campaigns of 2020 following the appalling murder of George Floyd highlighted serious issues with the traditional view of Britain’s past. The idea that Britain spread democracy around the world and benevolently transformed the Empire into the Commonwealth came under fire. Suddenly history was in the spotlight and in the middle of…
Guildford Tourist Office Review
The future of Guildford’s tourist information centre (TIC) is in doubt as councillors heard that providing an online service could save the council £70,000. The TIC is currently housed in Guildford House Gallery, a Grade I listed townhouse and art gallery in Guildford High Street. Its potential closure was discussed at a meeting of Guildford…
April 2022 – Museum Friends donate new cataloguing system
The Guildford Dragon has reported that the Friends of Guildford Museum have “made a generous gift to it of a computerised system for keeping records of all the around 100,000 objects in the collection.” Collections manager Sarah Fairhurst said they had already started getting the entire collection onto the CMS but “it will take decades…
April 2022 – Guildford Museum needs a plan
Guildford Museum is not exactly a dynamic advert for the town. It has been struggling for years and has hardly changed in decades. Visitor numbers are at an all time low. Councillor’s appear divided. Some see heritage as an asset and some as a burden. However, I think the Council should make more of its…