4 July 2023 is the centenary of Strangers’ Hall opening its doors as a publicly owned museum. To celebrate this amazing milestone, the Strangers’ Hall 100 programme is unveiling new displays and offering free days and fun events across the summer and into autumn.
The programme launches with an afternoon of free entry to Strangers’ Hall on Sunday 9 July as part of the Norwich Lanes Summer Fayre festival.
Enjoy colourful new artist-designed window displays celebrating some of the important figures in the museum’s history, including Leonard Bolingbroke – intrepid cyclist (see our Strangers’ Hall 100 logo!) – and generous donor of the museum and its contents to the city of Norwich a hundred years ago.
Inside the museum, new interpretation banners present fascinating images of archive photos and documents from the early days of the museum, while brand new displays include a stunning doll’s house and a Victorian bazaar doll and her wares.
In the parlour a refurbished original display case contrasts collections from 1922 with those especially chosen by local young people to reflect home life a hundred years later.
The fun continues in the summer holidays with four more free days in August (Wednesday 23, Thursday 24, Friday 25 and Sunday 27) and into September when Strangers’ Hall will take part in Heritage Open Days. In October and November, look out for special workshops with the Norfolk Record Office.
The centenary programme as a whole is generously funded by the Norwich Freemen’s Charity. The Friends of the Norwich Museums have supported additional interpretation about the history of the museum and new permanent displays.
