Derbyshire County Council has this week appointed SDL Auctioneers to sell Peak Buildings, home of Buxton Museum and Art Gallery for 96 years and a ‘For Sale By Auction’ sign has now gone up outside the venue and listed on rightmove.
The council’s Buxton Museum and Art Gallery in Peak Buildings, Terrace Road, closed to the public in June 2023 as a precautionary measure as parts of the building were potentially identified as being unsafe. Although initially it was a temporary closure, a decision to permanently relocate the museum from Peak Buildings was announced in May.
Since the announcement that the relocation was necessary, the council has been working to
identify suitable alternative premises to house the collections and re-open the museum and
art gallery to the public in a new location in the town.
Working with partners, a number of potential locations have been identified over the past few months, and a feasibility study is now underway to assess what it could cost to convert one of the sites identified into an accessible, modern museum and art gallery space.
The results of the feasibility study and whether a suitable conversion is possible and
affordable will be known in the next few months.
If the outcome is positive, then details will be made public and a decision will be made on whether this is the most suitable location for
the new museum.
Museum staff are continuing with the complex task of packing away the thousands of
artefacts and artworks housed at the museum. Some items will go into safe storage until a
new museum home is found and others will be displayed in alternative venues, including
Buxton Library, from where staff will be working temporarily.
How Buxton Museum used to look
Derbyshire County Council Leader and Cabinet Member for Strategic Leadership, Culture,
Tourism and Climate Change Councillor Barry Lewis said: “We remain absolutely committed
to providing a museum and art gallery in Buxton and this is an opportunity to take a fresh
look at the museum offer. “As the building goes on the market, we’re pleased to be at the stage where we have found somewhere we think may be suitable. If the outcome of the feasibility study is positive, we will give more details.”
Councillor Lewis added: “Our aim is to get the museum re-opened in a new location as soon as we can. We’re involving key partners and interested groups in our discussions as we continue to make progress.”
Staff are aiming to move all the museum collections from Peak Buildings by early 2025 and
the building auction is scheduled for 30th January 2025.
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