Celebrate 150 years of Weston Park Museum with us!

Weston Park Museum began life as a private house known as Weston Hall, and the park was its extensive estate. In 1873, the hall and its grounds were purchased by Sheffield Corporation (today’s City Council) and the building was transformed into Sheffield’s first public museum. Over the years, the museum has gone through many changes. In the late 1880s, the museum was extended and the Mappin Art Gallery opened. In 1934, businessman and philanthropist J G Graves provided funds to demolish Weston Hall and replace it with a new museum that connected to the gallery. Most recently, a major redevelopment culminated in the opening of Weston Park Museum in 2006. Weston Park Museum is now operated by Sheffield Museums as one of six leading museums and heritage sites across the city.  

Since Weston Park Museum first opened in 1875, it has welcomed people in their millions, from the tiniest tots to lifelong fans. People bring the museum to life – visitors, school groups from across the region and beyond, communities who co-curate displays, and the countless groups and individuals whose stories are shared throughout the museum. It’s a museum with Sheffield at its heart, one where the city’s stories are its greatest treasure.

As the summer draws to a close, the first in a series of new displays will be debuted, exploring the history of the museum and the collectors who were instrumental in its foundation. A further new display will see co-curators from the city’s South Asian communities explore stories of people living in Sheffield today, asking how a museum collection of the future can represent Sheffield and its people. 

Then in November, a major new exhibition will explore how the city’s museum collections began, revealing their eclectic breadth and celebrating the stories and people they represent. Curated by Heavy Water Collective, Sheffield-based artists Maud Haya-Baviera, Victoria Lucas and Joanna Whittle, the exhibition will draw together objects, archives and stories from across Sheffield’s collections.  

The exhibition and displays will be complemented by an extensive programme of talks and tours throughout 2025 and beyond.   

Weston Park Museum has been a part of people’s lives for a century and a half thanks to everyone who has, and continues to, support and cherish it – visitors and volunteers, artists, makers and experts, donors, funders and Friends, and everyone who has generously shared their objects, experiences, knowledge, passion and time. Thanks to that generosity, Weston Park Museum has become part of the fabric of the city and a steadfast champion of everything that makes Sheffield so unique. 

Among those passionate supporters are Sheffield businessman, Graham Royle and his wife, Sue. Well known for the philanthropic work, Graham and Sue are longstanding supporters of a range of charities in the Sheffield City Region charities, spanning health, education, culture and sport. Their generous support of the museums has recently been recognised in the naming of Weston Park Museum’s temporary exhibition gallery, now known as the Royle Gallery. Graham and Sue are currently working with us on exciting plans to cultivate further support for the positive impact the museums have on the people they serve, with more details to be released in the coming weeks.

Find information on all the exhibitions, events and activities announced so far to mark Weston Park Museum’s 150th birthday here