Council approves admission fees for museum visitors

The Museum of Oxford is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year

Visitors will now have to pay to visit a museum that was previously free after the local authority in charge of running it opted to impose entrance fees.

Oxford City Council voted to introduce a £4 standard fee and £2 charge for concessions to visit the Museum of Oxford from January next year.

The museum, which is marking its 50th anniversary this year, has always previously been free to visitors to peruse its collection - which includes local historical artefacts.

The proposal to introduce a fee had faced considerable opposition, with a petition against the plans gaining more than 650 signatures.

Speaking at Wednesday's meeting, former museum employee Marta Lomza called the plans "wholly inadequate".

She said the proposals included "little to no evidence, poor understanding of financial modelling, editorial errors and simply bad maths".

"Most concerningly, it displays an attitude to Oxford's residents which can only be described as contemptuous," she added.

Council reports showed footfall at the museum had reduced to 55,000 visitors in 2024-25 - significantly lower than the annual 74,000 visitors before 2021.

The report said this had led to a £77,000 shortfall for the council in the past year.

Councillor Alex Hollingsworth, culture chief, said it was "not sustainable" for the council to keep subsidising the museum.

"The Museum of Oxford has been very successful at the work it has done, as a place where the culture and history of this city's people can be celebrated.

"However, we must not forget that the creation of its museum in its current format... was with an aspiration that it could be self-sustaining financially, and that has never been achieved."

He said the museum received around £5,000 in voluntary donations from visitors last year, but added that the cost of running the museum were closer to £250,000.

Last week, the Museum of Oxford was awarded £227,952 from the Museum Renewal Fund.

The museum contains several Oxford artifacts, including a Red Cross medal belonging to Alice Liddel, who inspired the Alice in Wonderland novels.