30.08.2011
cobwebs, telephone equipment - and a fictional shop window
Oxford’s newest – and most dilapidated! – museum will be allowing visitors a sneak preview at this year’s Open Doors event on Saturday and Sunday, September 10 & 11. The Story Museum is not yet open to the public – though it will be hosting some unusual, story-related events in the run-up to its planned launch in 2014 – so this is a chance to take a tour of the atmospheric old buildings before the transformation begins. The Story Museum appointed architects last month and design work is due to begin this autumn.
The Story Museum site, in Pembroke Street, is a few paces from where Lewis Carroll wrote his Alice stories and where Tolkien began The Hobbit. The buildings themselves have their own story to tell: they used to house the telephone exchange and 100 years ago Rochester House was a college lodging, pub (visited by Dr Johnson) and stables. 750 years ago it was the first student accommodation for the University.
A specially created trail through the building will include the old telecommunications workers’ canteen and sorting offices and a shop window for fictional characters. The Story Museum is keen to hear stories and memories from any former BT and Post Office Telecommunications employees who worked in the building, for a story project it is working on in collaboration with BT Heritage.
On the Sunday, Oxford author and illustrator Mini Grey will be holding story times (suitable for 4-10 year olds) and reading from her latest book, Traction Man and the Beach Odyssey. She will also be signing books.
Timetable
Guided tours: on the hour and the half hour, 11.00am-5.00pm (last entry 4.30pm). Each tour lasts approx. 30 minutes. Tours will be on a first come, first served basis, with a maximum of 25 people at a time.
Mini Grey story time and book signing: Sunday 11 September.
Storytime: 12.00pm and 2pm (lasts 30-40 minutes)
Book signing: 12.45-1pm and 2.45-4pm
These will also be on a first-come, first-served basis, with a maximum of 25.
