Page 19 - PBCOctober2020

Pickwick Bicycle Club Magazine Volume 17 No.2 October 2020 19

We have also achieved a long-standing aspiration by launching our Collections Online,
featuring popular items from the collection, each with a description, photographs and
information about the item’s history. We will continue to add to this on a monthly basis and
hope to have reached the end of the 100,000+ items by the time we celebrate the Museum’s
centenary in 2025.

A sample of some items on
show

We reached another important milestone when we were able to reopen the Museum on
25 July 2020 after 18 weeks of closure. A steady stream of enthusiastic visitors have
th
followed and our new special exhibition, Technicolour Dickens: the Living Image of Charles
Dickens, featuring new colour photographs, undoubtedly has a ‘wow’ factor. With social
distancing measures in place, the Museum’s capacity is severely reduced; this is wonderful
for visitors who have the space to really enjoy being in Dickens’s house, but does present
some obvious difficulties for the Museum’s revenue targets. Fortunately, a Heritage
Emergency Grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund is helping with our reopening
costs for the first three months; we’re far from out of danger but it’s a start.

2020 is proving to be a memorable year – not quite the one we envisaged or planned, but one
that is reminding us of what really matters in life.

Cindy Sughrue
Director