Twickenham Museum will be closing for nine weeks beginning Monday 18th March.

Located on the line of the ancient foreshore alongside St Mary's Church, the 390-year-old Grade II listed building is to undergo much-needed repair, restoration and redisplay.

The long-overdue revitalisation will upgrade the eclectic assortment of display cases and cabinets acquired since the museum opened in 2001.

Highly experienced professionals have been drafted in to overcome the quirky nature of the floors in the fitting of industry-standard mannequin and other display cases to best preserve items in their case and to share many more.

As well as redecoration and full redisplay of the first floor exhibition area, the roof requires close inspection and some internal walls replastered.

Fresh evidence reveals from structural and other investigations that parts of the house date back to the 1630s as part of a fast developing riverside community.

Since then, the house has been home to all manner of trades and professions, the last occupant being the journalist and local heritage activist Jack Ellis who fought to save what remains of the Church Street neighbourhood from demolition in the 60s.

Jack left the building to the Twickenham Museum Trust to become a museum for the old borough of Twickenham, which has been its use since 2001.

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Its purpose is to collect, record and preserve the local history of Twickenham, Whitton, Teddington and The Hamptons that once formed the London borough of Twickenham before Richmond upon Thames was created in 1965.

A volunteer-led, self-supporting undertaking, funding for these essential renovation and improvement works comes by way of a generous bequest from the late Freda Hammerton whose family name enjoys a special place in the history of Thames watermen.

They are looking to re-open the museum on Saturday 11th May (11am to 3pm) and thereafter on Fridays at the same time and Sundays from 2.00pm to 4.00pm.

The museum are hoping that following the response to a call for volunteers last year they may be revising their opening times to include an extra day.