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On entering from Broad Street, visitors will pass between a shop on the right and hands-on events space to the left.
The main staircase will be restored, illuminated by the original skylight window above, adorned with mosaics, and with a “tactile” sculpture in the middle.
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This is part of a drive to make the building as accessible as possible – for example for those with impaired vision, or who are neuro-divergent. A “changing places” toilet on the ground floor, adding to those already now dotted around the city, will meanwhile be free to visit.
The ground floor will house the two main museum galleries, the first portraying how the land of Herefordshire was shaped, with more room created for this by removing a corner stairway and a mezzanine level.
Beyond this, a second gallery, provisionally named “Life on the Edge” will house artefacts including the Herefordshire Hoard of Dark Ages finds recently made in the county.
On the first floor, there will be “only light intervention” in the Woolhope Room, home since the building’s opening to the Woolhope Club, Herefordshire’s own learned society founded in 1851. The aim, according to Mr Etheraads, is to “bring back the grandeur” of this book-lined room with its balcony projecting out over Broad Street, which could serve as a future venue for civic events and weddings.
To the rear, a room which previously housed “the smallest county museum in the country” will become the “Inspiring Creativity Gallery”, showing local handiworks from tiles to textiles as well as artworks.
Beyond this will be a temporary exhibition space, the only part of the building with a potential entrance charge. “We are looking for big-name artists here, and already there is interest as the name of Hereford gets out there,” Mr Etheraads said.
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Further up, three “boutique” galleries will house a science club in tandem with the Woolhope Club, and another will be devoted to celebrated local artist Brian Hatton who was killed in the Great War.
A third will house the museum’s extensive costume collection dating from the 15th century to the present day, and there will also be a display devoted to 18th-century Hereford-born actor and impresario David Garrick.
The newly created rooftop terrace will meanwhile be “a place to visit in an evening and enjoy the view with a drink”, Mr Etheraads said.
“On a clear day you will be able to see for miles, even beyond the city.”
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