North Hertfordshire Museum

North Hertfordshire Museum stands in Hitchin’s town centre, next to the newly restored Hitchin Town Hall on Brand Street. The building itself is a conversion of the old town hall, redesigned by Buttress architects with gallery layouts by Mather & Co. It opened in July 2019 after a review found the previous museums in Letchworth and Hitchin no longer met modern needs. The council decided to bring all collections together in one central location. The project followed a feasibility study into using the town hall for museum purposes. Today it serves as a single site for local history and heritage. The museum has four galleries. Three hold permanent displays: Discovering North Herts traces the district’s past from 90 million years ago to the present. Living in North Herts groups objects by themes such as farming, play, trade and family life. The Terrace Gallery features the Football Collection founded in 1956 by Vic Wayling of Hitchin Town F.C. and a display called Collecting the World with items from every continent. The fourth gallery hosts temporary exhibitions that change over time. Visitors walk through the chronological story in Discovering North Herts, seeing fossils, maps and modern planning documents. In Living in North Herts they compare everyday objects from different centuries, from iron tools to children’s toys. The Terrace Gallery shows football memorabilia alongside artefacts collected by local travellers. Temporary shows bring in new subjects and artists regularly. The building links the town’s past with its present in a clear, accessible way.