Abbey House Museum Consultation

Introduction

Like councils up and down the country, we’re facing our most significant financial challenge ever.  Funding levels haven’t kept pace with rising costs and huge increases in demand for our services, especially those that support Leeds’ most vulnerable children and adults.

We’ve already cut costs where we can – for example, through a freeze where possible on recruitment and non-essential spend. But this isn’t enough. We estimate we’ll need to make around £106m of savings next year, nearly one fifth of our net budget. The budget proposals we’re presenting therefore include service and staffing reductions, fee increases and new charges, building closures and sales, and reduced hours of operation.  None of these proposals have been put forward lightly but we have a legal duty to set a balanced budget and so need to make some difficult decisions to make the best use of the resources we have.

Leeds City Council is proposing to permanently close Abbey House Museum to the public, at the annual saving of £160,000 beginning in 2025/26. We are consulting on this proposal because we are keen to understand the views of Leeds residents and visitors.

Abbey House Museum opened in 1927 as a museum and boasts three replica 19th century Victorian streets with authentically recreated shops, pub and houses. Exhibits range from the 19th century equivalent of a modern high street with a chemist, ironmongers, haberdashers, mourning warehouse and traditional Victorian drinking house. On the first floor there are childhood galleries exploring toys through the ages plus temporary exhibition galleries. Also contained within the museum is the original gatehouse of Kirkstall Abbey with vaulted ceilings and stained-glass windows.

The museum is used by schools and communities, welcoming over 5,300 pupils from schools across the region and 1,938 people from community groups in the last financial year. The museum has seen a decline in visitors over the last three years, seeing visitor figures of just over 39,000 in 2023/24.

This consultation is taking place in parallel with another consultation about access to the main ruins of Kirkstall Abbey. If you wish to also contribute to this separate consultation, then you can find more information about how to do so at the end of this survey.

Instructions

It should take you about 5 minutes to answer all the questions. The last day that you can respond is Thursday 23rd January 2025.

If you need to speak to someone about this survey then please email marketing.museums@leeds.gov.uk.

Privacy notice (data protection)

The information provided will be used by Leeds City Council (as data controller) to understand views about Abbey House Museum. We will keep your information safe and secure in line with UK data protection law. Your data will be processed by the relevant teams within Leeds City Council. Our software supplier, SmartSurvey Ltd, will also process your data on our behalf but will never use these for its own purposes.
 
Further information regarding how the council processes your personal data, including your rights and contact details for our Data Protection Officer, can be found on our website.
 
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