Bookmark this independent blog

Wednesday 8 February 2012

Red House: cabinet sees sense

Richard Wilcocks writes:
Good news! At the cabinet meeting at Huddersfield Town Hall yesterday afternoon it was recommended that the Red House Museum should not close. All the friends and campaigners who have been so wonderfully active in the past couple of weeks can now breathe more easily for a while, hoping that Kirklees Council as a whole will do the right thing when it meets on 22 February. Thanks to everybody who has been in touch, especially to you, Gordon North - your local knowledge is impressively wide-ranging and your alacrity is admirable.


The cabinet made it clear that there should be a new business plan for all the museums in the authority which would include ways of making museums pay their way. This means admission charges, increasing visitor numbers and allowing weddings to take place. All of which is much better than a crassly simple closure plan.


English Heritage has been approached to get the ball rolling to make Red House into a Grade One listed building. It is a Grade Two at the moment. Grade One status could be awarded not because of the architecture but because of the history. Let us hope for this, because it means that new grants would be available.


Kirklees press release.

1 comment:

B. Skilet said...

That is really good news.I know that a lot of hard work has gone into putting the view forward that the museum should not close- so thanks are extended from someone who has visited Red House and found it a very pleasant experience.
I think that English Heritage are likely to be far more interested in a Grade 1 listed building.