8 Duke Street, Kingston
Visiting
Free, six days a week, no ticket and no booking. The building is three floors of a 1948 conversion with a stair in the middle of it, and the whole of the ground floor is step-free from the street.
- Tuesday to Saturday
- 10:00 to 17:00
- Sunday
- 12:00 to 16:00
- Monday
- Closed
The building
What is on each floor
About two hours covers the five rooms without hurrying. If you only have one, take the ground floor and the machine floor.
- Entrance hallThe desk, the lift, and one cement tile in a case beside the gap it was lifted from. Ask anything at the desk. Bags larger than a satchel go behind it.
- Ground floorBrick, lime and timber, then ironwork and hand tools. Step-free from Duke Street. The Falmouth window head is heavy enough that it sits on the floor rather than a plinth.
- First floorConcrete and the louvre, then print, paper and drawings. The Albion press runs twice a year and the dates go up at the desk.
- Second floorThe machine floor, and behind the door at the end, bays 1 to 9 and the plan chests. The store is not open to walk into; it is open to ask into.
- Top floorThe study room. Two tables, north light, Wednesday and Friday only.
Getting here
Duke Street, between the parish church and the old courthouse. Buses along Barry Street and East Queen Street stop within four minutes' walk.
There is no museum car park. There is metered street parking on Duke Street and a lot on Water Lane.
Access
Step-free from the street to the entrance hall and the whole ground floor. The lift reaches every floor including the study room.
Two chairs in each room. Tell us at the desk if you want an object brought to a chair rather than the other way round.
With a class
Thirty to a room, so a class moves through one room at a time and takes about ninety minutes.
Two weeks' notice and we will pull six objects out of store for the class. Ask here.
Photographs
Yes, flash off, in the rooms and in the study room. Write the accession number down so you can cite it.
For a proper photograph rather than your own, ask and we will tell you whether one exists.
Asked at the desk
Before you come
Is it really free?
Yes, and it has been since 1948. Entry is free, the study room is free, the Saturday walk is free, and asking us what something is costs nothing. The only charge in the building is one thousand five hundred dollars for a scanned copy of a drawing or a photograph, waived for schools.
How much is on display, and where is the rest?
Four hundred and twelve objects are out in the five rooms. The other eleven thousand or so are in the store on the top two floors, in nine bays and four plan chests. The store is not a warehouse of things we have given up on: it is the museum, and the rooms are a selection from it.
How do I see something that is in store?
Find it in the register, add it to a request, and send the request with a day that suits you. Give us two working days. The study room runs Wednesday and Friday, ten to three, with two tables and up to six objects on a table at once.