Time is passing by fast. It’s been a year already since I became a Trustee of the Poole Museum Foundation. It’s been a fascinating experience so far, joining at a time when the museum was preparing to re-open following a £10m Lottery funded redevelopment.
This gave time for our new board to settle into the roles, with much of what was happening last year already set in stone and rolling out at pace. Following the grand opening in November, attention has begun to turn to what happens next.
2026 has begun with a brief reset for the first changeover of exhibits. On Friday evening we hosted a private view of Lucian Freud’s etchings, a touring exhibit from the Victoria and Albert Museum, with special guest Gill Saunders from the V&A team.
It’s open to the public now and free to enter, along with the rest of the museum. It can be found on the fourth floor, where the opening exhibit Sound of the Sea was housed previously, in a GIS (Government Indemnity Standard) space, fully temperature controlled to facilitate exhibition of such high profile items.
In addition to this, another new display has opened up on the second floor in place of the (brilliant) touring exhibit Un/Common People (which has moved on to Salisbury Museum). Here you can find a range of pieces relating to the former Poole Power Station.
I was only 6 years old when the site was demolished in 1993 but I remember the sight and sound of the chimneys being blown up, as I’m sure many local residents do. Living adjacent to Hamworthy’s other big chimney (‘Metal Box’ as we knew it), I would always look out for the two connected to the power station and no doubt seeing them go made my imagination wonder about the one next to our home. It was eventually demolished 25 years later in 2018, the year I left Hamworthy (for the fourth time).
I got an advance peak on Friday evening as the team were working against the clock, readying the display for yesterday’s opening. It certainly gave me a pang of nostalgia for some of my earliest memories of growing up in Hamworthy and Poole.
Having seen a schedule of upcoming exhibits for 2026 / 2027, there’s plenty more great stuff on the way for Poole Museum. Learn more at poolemuseum.org.uk
Here’s another piece I wrote on the re-opening of the museum for Collect Us All!
Liam Toms 