St. Ives Museum — Attraction in St. Ives

Situated near the end of the harbour, the museum entrance is on the first floor, up a fairly steep staircase. There is a secondary entrance at ground level that gives access to a stair lift for those with a mobility problem. Entry is £3 for adults and is a reasonable amount for what's on offer and I believe it's run by local volunteers.

Despite all the artefacts on display, I came away feeling I didn't really know much more about St. Ives than before, which is a shame.

The museum is laid out over the two floors. The top floor has sections on shipping, the railway, clothing etc. Downstairs is about the local mining and fishing industries and is only accessible by the stairs. Generally the museum has masses of artefacts on show in display cabinets and hanging on walls, but little seems to have been done to present them in an interesting way, nor to provide a time line or much detail of the local history.

I've been to other local museums that have done more to engage visitor's interest. This has a basis, but maybe needs a local historian to...

The St Ives Museum is one of those traditional museums that you don't get very often any more - lots of exhibits, loosely themed and arranged in glass cabinets and so on. I can see how hard it would be to restructure it but I think it might be worth trying. I didn't feel I learnt a great deal about St Ives and its evolution through history to the place it is today. Sometimes, less is more. My other criticism is that throughout the museum, there are signs warning visitors that they are being watched on cctv and that photography ("of any kind") is not allowed. I can understand fears about pilfering when there are so many artefacts on open display, but most visitors are honest and these signs certainly made me feel unwelcome. Also, times change. Younger people upload photos of everything they do and everywhere they visit. Savvy places do not discourage photography, because they know it's free advertising that can reach millions of potential viewers in seconds. I really wish this museum well. It deserves to evolve and thrive. I hope it...

This was my first time visiting the St. Ives Museum and I really enjoyed it, down stairs is exhibitions of Farming, Mining, Fishing and processing of fish, with some very informative videos. Upstairs is more local history items showing life in Cornwall and its strong ties to the Sea. They had a gest exhibition of local artists that was a real bonus, but they regularly have such gest exhibitions.

We didn't have to queue to get in and admittance was a very reasonable £5.

The entrance is up a flight of stairs but for those who are disabled or can't manage stairs there is a ground floor entrance that leads to a chairlift, so all good.

Really nice museum that if the weather was not so good for us adults you can easily kill half a day just by looking, reading and...