Riding A Wave

Last year, Lymington’s St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery was formally reopened by the Duke of Wessex following a controversial £2 million facelift. So has the spirit of the town where forest and sea meet been captured? Viv Micklefield takes a tour

- Viv Micklefield

STEPPING-OFF Lymington High Street and down New Street, the curvaceous brick and glass façade stops you in your tracks. In drawing inspiration from the town’s famous crinkle-crankle walls it’s a firm nod to the past. Yet, here’s the entrance to a building that unashamedly says ‘look at me’. And when it comes to St Barbe Museum and Gallery, there’s good reason behind this.

Whereas many local museums have their origins in a bygone era, it’s taken a mere 20 years for this Hampshire arts venue to amass over 18,000 local history artefacts that tell the story of Lymington and the New Forest coast. Alongside which, the art gallery here attracts exhibitions of national significance. But the tide never stands still in these parts. And, following a period of closure, 2017 saw the completion of a £2 million project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, to transform the one-time Victorian school house into a space fit for the 21st century.

“Before 2011 we didn’t occupy the whole building and had become the hidden gem behind the council-run information centre,” says Mark Tomlinson, St Barbe’s director, who’d received a damning report from Visit England describing how the anonymous looking entrance they’d inherited, was akin to walking into a doctor’s waiting room. “We had our work cut-out to say that this was a civic building, that was inviting, and which offered a glimpse of the cultural attractions and activities within it,” Mark admits. Continuing: “I like to think of it as a bit like lifting the lid of a jewellery box to let a little bit of the sparkle out.”