Visit Reports
The Higgins Bedford Wednesday Sept 24th 2014
The Higgins Bedford unites, on one site, three previous cultural venues : Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford Museum and Bedford Gallery. The £6m re-developed building opened in the summer of 2013 and had a special report in the NADFAS review.
On arrival, we were given an excellent lecture on the history of the various sites and collections. Charles Higgins and his family moved to Bedford in the 1820s, founding the brewery at Castle Lane and building the family home next to it. The brewery remained in the Higgins family until the late 1920s when Cecil Higgins, then over seventy, decided to sell it to Wells & Winch Ltd. in order to focus on his ambition to found a museum to house his collection of ceramics, glass and objets d’art for the benefit, interest and education of the inhabitants of, and visitors to, Bedford. Cecil Higgins left a complex will to protect his collection which stipulated how the museum was to be organised. He also left a trust fund, to be used for museum purposes, but principally for acquiring works of art . The Trustees of the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery still administer the trust, safeguarding the Cecil Higgins collection, enabling new acquisitions and vital conservation work.
We were introduced to the special collections of William Burges. One of the showpieces of the redevelopment features the painted
furniture designed by Burges for his own use, including his Sleeping Beauty Bed and the newly acquired Zodiac Settle, a detail of
which is shown above.
This room contains the Handley-Read Collection including William Burges furniture.
There was a special exhibition of a selection of the museum's archive of Edward Bawden's work, which was donated in the 1980s from the contents of his studio. As well as his own series of linocuts and engravings, the artist's work was used in advertisements for Twinings, Westminster Bank, the London Underground and Kew Gardens.
In addition there were stunning collections of glass and ceramics including a collection of teapots and many intricate figures.
Teapot in form of a Roman soldier, Meissen 1716 - 27
In between visiting the galleries we all enjoyed the food in The Higgins Pantry and many of us said we would return and perhaps bring our own visitors.
Cynthia Hayhurst June 2014