Wilson Art Gallery and Museum — Attraction in Cheltenham

I visited the Wilson Musuem and Art Gallery on Friday 9 December 2022. The coach drop off point was in the main bus station. I walked from there along Clarence Parade, turned left at the Cheltenham building and the Wilson is approximately 50 yards on the right. As I have reduced mobility , this took me approximately 10 minutes. There are tables and chairs outside the entrance and a dropped curb near the front door. The access to the building is step free and the entrance doors are automatic sliding glass doors. Once into the building, there is a reception desk where you can get information and a cafe area. The museum areas are floors 1,2,and 3 and can be accessed by stairs. I chose to use the wheelchair accessible lift .If you tire easily when walking , I found the best way to see the exhibits was to take the lift to the top floor and work my way down. On the day I visited, the top floor was given over to an exhibit called Clear of People. This featured a short film and landscape photographs featuring a Polish man from a town called Polny , who escaped from the camps during WW2 and made his way home. The film is in his own words and is in Polish with English subtitles. The film area is in a glass walled ante room with a single small melamine bench but plenty of wheelchair space. Sadly , although there is a lot of thought put into accessibility to this building, none seemed to have thought of the fact that the door to the film room is a fairly heavy pull/ push door with no power assist, making it difficult for a wheelchair user to open the door without some effort. On the day, I visited, the room guide was Spencer, who is an associate volunteer and also a wheelchair user.We had a discussion about this issue and apparently it may be rectified with the next tranche of refurbishment etc next year. Floor 2 featured a room full of beautiful Arts and Crafts furniture and artefacts such as pottery and William Morris designs. Credit is paid to the makers and their work of the Cotswolds Art and Crafts Movement featuring areas such as Cheltenham and Gloucester, which was new to me.There is a "makers space"aka as a studio where Artists in Residence work. They weren't there on that day! 😊 It is worth noting that there are toilets including a wheelchair accessible toilet on every floor, which I found impressive. I had a snack, toasted teacakes with butter and jam, and hot chocolate with cream, which was good but expensive at over £11.00. The cafe area has tables and chairs as well as sofas you can sit and eat at a small table. My thanks to Vicky at the reception desk, the aforementioned Spencer and Abby in the kitchen. Alin the kitchen, was a lady who had only worked at the Wilson for 9 days but was highly...

The first thing you see when you enter is the cafe which takes up a lot of room on the ground floor. There is no information desk. There is a basic printout, that's it. There is a small area in the lounge that sells gifts which you can't look at properly as tables for the cafe are in the way. Plus after buying some postcards at £2.00 each, I find 10p written on the back of one of them, so I'm guessing they're shifting old stock. The Bees in Common art exhibits, were dwarfed by the empty space which detracted from the art itself. It appeared thrown together with no thought. The same with the Common Ground exhibition. No coherence. A jumbled mess with no obvious story or timeline. Very few explanations of what actually the art is supposed to say. The exhibition online info says: 'Common Ground invites visitors to explore stories of change, loss, rebellion, and reclamation in relation to common land and the natural environment, from Cheltenham and the Cotswolds.' Sadly all it made me feel was disappointment. The art work was good, it was let down by it's presentation. The Arts and Crafts exhibition was the only interesting part. I understand that refurbishment is ongoing so hopefully when finished there will be a lot more archeological and historic artifacts on display. At present it is more of an art gallery than a museum. If that is what you like, fair enough. Don't go if you want to learn the history, natural history and archeology of the area. I understand the Gallery and Museum are free entry, yet I have been to smaller community museums that have been interesting and informative...

Very poor customer service. So we went yesterday on Saturday 22/02/2025 with our grandma who is 90 years old, my 3 mo baby, dad in law and my husband. They sell cakes which are the same everyday costs £4.95 each. But they write an offer £5 for hot drinks and cake. We ordered cakes and hot drinks. And the male waiter with black hair who was in charge that day said that we as the customers have to let them know that we ask for the offer otherwise the customers would be charged full price!! They are the ones who have to inform customers if they have offer / deals otherwise don't bother! This is almost like a scam! And he said it arrogantly as well. There is no politeness. The staffs must be trained properly otherwise they should not to work in a customer service role at all. It happened twice as well when we went there couple weeks before. At least at that time the different staff who was in charge said sorry that it was his first day. Also the other waiter was just standing there in a quiet cafe, not even serving people the cakes and hot drinks while before that our cakes and hot drinks were served on our table. What if a senior citizen needs help? Are they just gonna stand there doing nothing? I won't bother come again and will inform it to other as well. Very rude! Go...