Council issues further update on the Treasure House transformation in Beverley

As work is about to get under way on the transformation of the Treasure House in Beverley, which will become the Champney Treasure House, more details have now been released by East Riding of Yorkshire Council.

The £3.3 million scheme includes a new customer service centre and enhanced library, and a new location within the building for the reference library, while the council’s registration services will relocate there from Walkergate House. There will be a new Changing Places facility, and Champney Gardens will also be landscaped. 

The contractors for the scheme will be Hobson & Porter.

To enable the exciting transformation to happen, the whole of the Treasure House will be closed for approximately a year. All facilities will close at 4pm on Saturday, 23 September.

Temporary arrangements will be put in place to allow services to continue as much as possible:

Beverley Library : will temporarily relocate into County Hall, on the other side of Champney Road (directly opposite the existing library). The temporary library will open on Wednesday, 4 October and will keep the normal Beverley library opening times. All library services will transfer across to the temporary facility, and regular activities and sessions will resume in October. Visit eastridinglibraries.co.uk/whatson for full details.

During the intervening period, the nearest alternative library facilities will be at Cottingham, Willerby and Hornsea. However, East Riding Libraries will continue to be available online at www.eastridinglibraries.co.uk

Tourist Information Centre (TIC): will temporarily relocate from Wednesday, 27 September into the Customer Service Centre at 7, Cross Street. Opening times will be: Monday to Thursday, 9am-5pm; Friday, 9am-4.30pm; Saturday, 9am-4pm.

During the short period when the TIC will be completely closed, the TIC bike will be used around the town to serve tourists and visitors.

East Riding Archives will be available online for a variety of enquiries and requests for document copies. The staff will continue their conservation work, and will also continue to develop the What Was Here app and the Archives 360 interactive virtual tour. They will continue regular blogs and cataloguing work, and will still communicate regularly through email and social media. The service can be contacted via archives.service@eastriding.gov.uk

Beverley Art Gallery: the team will be working on redisplaying the permanent collection in the Red Gallery space, bringing new stories and artworks to light. They will also be preparing a brand-new programme of exhibitions for 2025. The team will share their work behind-the-scenes through social media, regular newsletters, and on local media. More details of their exciting plans to be issued during the closure period. 

Beverley Art Gallery Curator Hannah Willetts said : “Although the gallery will be closed, we’ll be very busy behind the scenes and I look forward to revealing the projects we have lined up. We’ll be sharing our work throughout the closure, both online and in person, providing a unique insight into the work we do as a gallery team while we prepare new displays and exhibitions.” 

Museum: The Treasure House Museum will be closed for the duration of the transformation project. New objects will be installed in the museum ready for opening, with research and new discoveries shared in the East Riding Museums newsletter, through social media and online. An exciting programme of temporary exhibitions will be devised for launch in 2025.

Treasure House Curator Sally Hayes said: "The temporary closure of the museum will be an excellent opportunity to get objects out of storage, some of which have not been seen for many years, and include archaeological treasures and social history from across the East Riding. We will also be adding new film and audio content on listening posts and screens and working with local independent museums and societies on display cases".

During the closure period, the Treasure House will be using different venues to continue some of its programmes and events such as ‘Tiny Treasures On Tour’ for under 5s and their grown ups.

Café : will be closed throughout the period.

Register Office : services provided at the current register office at Walkergate House will remain unchanged until the work is completed. Anyone planning a register office wedding in Beverley in the autumn or winter of 2024 and beyond should talk to Registrar staff who can advise about the excellent facilities that will be available in the new Champney Treasure House.

Gardens : Work is also expected to start shortly on an attractive landscaping scheme in the Treasure House gardens to complement the new-look building, designed to make the gardens a more attractive and welcoming place to visit for everyone.

As the new building will house the town’s register office, the gardens will become an ideal location for wedding groups and for photographs to be taken.

The upgrade will include new seating areas, a sundial, and new pergolas – one for residents to walk through with climbing foliage overhead - and the others providing ideal seating areas.

The garden is also aimed at improving the environment with plenty of new planting and bedding, a biodiverse lawn, areas designed to encourage insects and wildlife, new sights and scents on offer, and also an information board to explain the history of the gardens.

All services and facilities in the Treasure House will continue as normal until 23 September, including events in Beverley Library.

Councillor Nick Coultish, portfolio holder for culture, leisure and tourism, said: “The Champney Treasure House scheme is aimed at improving the library in Beverley and creating a new cultural hub for the town, whilst also rationalising our assets and getting better value for money for our residents. It will be largely funded by the sale of our buildings in Cross Street and Walkergate House.

“We apologise to our regular customers for the inconvenience caused by this closure period, but we have worked hard to ensure the best possible arrangements for our library customers and TIC users whilst the Treasure House is shut. I can assure all those who use the Treasure House that the wait will be worth it, with superb new facilities.”

Full details of the Treasure House Transformation can be found at: eryc.link/treasurehouse