Dear West Leeds Dispatch,
Here are some further thoughts to add to the many excellent points made by your readers already about Abbey House Museum:
The council’s case can be summarised as follows:
1. Visitor numbers have not returned to pre-covid levels
2. A survey was commissioned in July 2024 which is said to show that most visitors didn’t think much of the Museum and would not ever come again
3. Therefore the museum needs money spent on it to make it attract more people
4. The Council has no money to spare to do thatÂ
5. Therefore the Museum will have to shut.
Some points to make about this case:
1. Is the Museum the only place where visitor numbers are lower than pre-Covid?
2. In contrast to what is claimed to be the facts revealed by the survey – who has seen and read it, and how much did it cost? – Trip Advisor places the Museum 3rd, yes, THIRD, out of 341 things to do in Leeds, and has some lovely and keen comments, including that they’d certainly come again.
3. This is a non sequitur – the Museum does not need capital spending to make people visit (see Trip Advisor and the hundreds of Leeds people who’ve already made their opposition clear and who love the museum as it is).
4. No one would claim that the Museum has more claim than other places for capital spending.
BUT a lot of money was spent very recently at the Museum to provide new toilet facilities, including a Changing Places toilet paid for by the Department for Levelling Up and the charity Muscular Dystrophy UK.
5. No, the Museum must not shut!
And the Council proposes to allow school parties to visit for 2025-26, but no one else can go in! This seems perverse and mean. SO exactly how the £160k saving is to be made should be publicly itemised in full detail.
And finally, from April 2026, what will happen to the special building itself, which was the Gate House to the Abbey? The proposal seems to be that it will be left empty. Words fail me!
- Elizabeth Minkin, Honorary Alderman and ex Kirkstall councillor, 1988-2008.
Editor’s note: A public consultation into the proposals – where you can have your say – has been launched by the council
WLD is following ongoing council cuts, closures and building sales in our Cutswatch series of articles.
Exactly.
Keep the museum open.
The council has other buildings it can sell I know because I am paying above normal rates according to my bill we are not stupid lcc
Sell U.1 . Registration, The museum is more important than an air polluting motor car. (Estimated cost of registration plate £500,000.
This is one of my family’s favourite places to go. A lot of thought goes into their events too. – such as Halloween. Would be a shame to see it go.
Maybe it would be a good idea to make part of the Abbey House Museum building into Leeds’ own version of Abbey Road Studios & for the local community to have access to those services
This museum should not close as it’s part of our history and well known across the city.its a great place to visit and I would go back to it.what I have read in the past there is. Ghosts which are suppose to be there.but I never seen any while I was there at the time.
Museums contain our heritage and need to be protected above all other cultural attractions.