Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery – rediscover humanity

Plymouth - a city enriched with charisma, heritage and historical pride - is based in Devon County towards the South West of England. And its city center - Drake Circus – is a shoppers’ delight, with merchandise bearing the names of UK’s crème de la crème brands. It is in this thriving area that Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery resides.

With the funds donated by the Scottish Andrew Carnegie, this museum was built by Thornely and Rooke, featuring the Edwardian Baroque style. After the ravaging caused by ‘The Blitz’ the museum’s interior was revamped in 1954.

Inaugurated in 1910, the museum boasts of a fascinating repository comprising over 150,000 natural history specimens, numerous prehistoric artifacts dating back to Bronze Age, 750 easel paintings, over 3,000 water-color paintings and drawings, around 7,000 fine prints and quite a few sculptures. This mammoth collection is divided into genres such as fine art, decorative art, human history (archeology and world cultures) and natural history.

The museum is opened from Tuesdays to Fridays from 10:00am to 5.30pm and on Mondays, Saturdays and bank holidays from 10:00am to 5:00pm. Admission is free for all. There are 10 permanent galleries, such as ‘Bringing the World to Plymouth’, ‘Ancient Egypt’, ‘Uncovered’, ‘Plymouth: Port and Place’ and ‘Explore Nature’ nestled in the ground floor; whilst first floor houses ‘Atrium Gallery’, ‘Artists of St Ives and the South West’, ‘Beryl Cook Tribute Wall’, ‘The China Connection’ and ‘The Cottonian Collection’.

The famous Cottonian Collection was acquired by the museum in 1916. It originally belonged to William Cotton and after his demise was preserved at the Proprietary Library since 1863. The collection features popular local artists works like; Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), James Northcote (1746-1831), Samuel Prout (1783-1852), Charles Locke Eastlake (1836-1906) and Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786-1846).

The museum hosts many educational events and workshops for all ages, along with research facilities in addition to providing various amenities for the disabled.

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