The Harris Museum is a Grade I-listed building in

Preston, Lancashire Preston () is a city on the north bank of the River Ribble in Lancashire, England. The city is the administrative centre of the county of Lancashire and the wider City of Preston local government district. Preston and its surrounding distri ...

, England. Founded by Edmund Harris in 1877, it is a local history and fine art museum.

History

In the 19th century, it became legal to raise money for libraries by local taxation, and the town of Preston wanted a grand museum and library for its inhabitants. From 1850, local people held fund-raising events; and in 1877 Edmund Robert Harris, a Preston lawyer, left in his will £300,000 to establish a trust and support a

public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

, museum and art gallery with Preston Corporation. In 1879, the first Preston lending library was set up in the Town Hall basement, while a public museum was set up on Cross Street, opening 1 May 1880. Success led the council to erect a new building for both. Work started on the museum in 1882 during the

Preston Guild Preston () is a city on the north bank of the River Ribble in Lancashire, England. The city is the administrative centre of the county of Lancashire and the wider City of Preston local government district. Preston and its surrounding distri ...

, and it officially opened in 1893.

Design

The building was designed by a local

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

James Hibbert James Hibbert (1831 – 19 November 1903) was an English architect who practised in Preston, Lancashire. Life and work Hibbert was born in Preston and educated at Preston Grammar School. From 1855 Hibbert worked in partnership with Nathan Rain ...

, who chose a Neo-Classical

style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...

. For the 1880s, this was in some ways contrary to the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style which was popular at the time and features in numerous contemporary buildings in Preston, including the old Town Hall which stood on the western side of the Harris.

Exterior

The building's exterior reflects Hibbert's vision of a neo-classicism through "“simplicity, symmetry of plan, truthfulness of expression and refinement of detail”. Unlike other public buildings designed in this style (such as the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

in London and the Konzerthaus in Berlin), Hibbert's design does not feature steps leading up from the Flag Market but instead has ground-level entrances on each side of the building. A

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

dominates the front of the building and features a

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

based upon Raphael's painting ''

The School of Athens ''The School of Athens'' ( it, Scuola di Atene) is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. The fresco was painted between 1509 and 1511 as a part of Raphael's commission to decorate the rooms now known as the , in the Apostolic Pala ...

''. Interpreting Hibbert's design fell to London sculptor

Edwin Roscoe Mullins Edwin Roscoe Mullins (22 August 1848- 9 January 1907) was a British sculptor known for a number of architectural sculptures and smaller works featuring neo-classical figures. Biography Mullins was born at Holborn in central London and attended ...

and features the central figure of the Ancient Athenian general

Pericles Pericles (; grc-gre, Περικλῆς; c. 495 – 429 BC) was a Greek politician and general during the Golden Age of Athens. He was prominent and influential in Athenian politics, particularly between the Greco-Persian Wars and the Pelopo ...

, surrounded by twelve other men arranged symmetrically to either side. The sculpture is considered Mullins' principal work. Beneath the pediment is the inscription ''To Literature, Arts and Science''. There are further inscriptions along the sides, including "on Earth there is nothing great but man : in man there is nothing great but mind." On the

lantern tower In architecture, the lantern tower is a tall construction above the junction of the four arms of a cruciform (cross-shaped) church, with openings through which light from outside can shine down to the crossing (so it also called a crossing lante ...

a quotation in

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

from

Pericles' Funeral Oration "Pericles's Funeral Oration" (Ancient Greek: Περικλέους Επιτάφιος) is a famous speech from Thucydides' ''History of the Peloponnesian War''. The speech was supposed to have been delivered by Pericles, an eminent Athenian politi ...

. Supporting the pediment are six Ionic

fluted columns An order in architecture is a certain assemblage of parts subject to uniform established proportions, regulated by the office that each part has to perform. Coming down to the present from Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman civilization, the arch ...

leading down to a raised

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

overlooking the Flag Market.

Interior

The building's interior is dominated by a central hall rising over 120 feet from the ground floor to the ceiling of the lantern tower. As well as the ground floor, there are three upper floors with balconies opening up onto the central hall, and collection halls and exhibition spaces on each floor. The interior design features classical influences from

Ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...

and

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

, including

columns A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

and mosaic floors, and copies of Classical and

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

sculpture representing the “whole range and history of the world’s greatest achievements in art”. Only the Greek and Assyrian

friezes In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

on the upper floors and the copy of Lorenzo Ghiberti's ''Gates of Paradise'' on the ground floor remain of the original sculptures.

Collections

The Harris collections cover fine art, decorative art, costume, textiles and history including collections on archaeology and local history. The museum has a permanent history gallery called ''Discover Preston'' which covers Preston's history but also includes a Discovery Room featuring the wider collections. Highlights of the Discovery Room include a display of the complete skeleton discovered in 1970, of the 13,500-year-old ''Poulton Elk'', a skeleton of an Ice Age

elk The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The common ...

with two embedded man-made barbed points, the earliest relic of human occupation of Lancashire. The fine art collection includes over 800 oil paintings featuring work by

Richard Ansdell Richard Ansdell (11 May 1815 – 20 April 1885) was a British painter of animals and genre scenes. Life Ansdell was born in Liverpool (then in Lancashire), the son of Thomas Griffiths Ansdell, a freeman who worked at the port, and Anne Jacks ...

George Frederick Watts George Frederic Watts (23 February 1817, in London – 1 July 1904) was a British painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolist movement. He said "I paint ideas, not things." Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical wor ...

Lawrence Alma-Tadema Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, (; born Lourens Alma Tadema ; 8 January 1836 – 25 June 1912) was a Dutch painter who later settled in the United Kingdom becoming the last officially recognised denizen in 1873. Born in Dronryp, the Netherlands, ...

Stanley Spencer Sir Stanley Spencer, CBE RA (30 June 1891 – 14 December 1959) was an English painter. Shortly after leaving the Slade School of Art, Spencer became well known for his paintings depicting Biblical scenes occurring as if in Cookham, the small ...

Lucian Freud Lucian Michael Freud (; 8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. He was born in Berlin, the son of Jewis ...

Ivon Hitchens Ivon Hitchens (born London, 3 March 1893 – 29 August 1979) was an English painter who started exhibiting during the 1920s. He became part of the 'London Group' of artists and exhibited with them during the 1930s. His house was bombed in 1940 du ...

and

Graham Sutherland Graham Vivian Sutherland (24 August 1903 – 17 February 1980) was a prolific English artist. Notable for his paintings of abstract landscapes and for his portraits of public figures, Sutherland also worked in other media, including printmaking ...

as well as local artists

Anthony Devis Anthony Devis (18 March 1729 – 26 April 1816) was an English landscape painter, working especially in watercolor and oils and active in London.Waterhouse, E., ''Dictionary of British 18th century painters'', 1981, p. 108 Anthony Devis was bor ...

and

Reginald Aspinwall Reginald Aspinwall (born Preston, Lancashire, Preston, England, 3 January 1855, died Lancaster, Lancashire, Lancaster, England, 26 February 1921) was an English landscape painter. Life Aspinwall was born in Preston, Lancashire where his father ...

. The decorative art collection includes collections of British ceramics and glass, and are displayed in the ''Ceramics and Glass Gallery''. In addition there is a contemporary art programme of national and international artists, touring shows and in-house exhibitions. A

Foucault pendulum The Foucault pendulum or Foucault's pendulum is a simple device named after French physicist Léon Foucault, conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the Earth's rotation. A long and heavy pendulum suspended from the high roof above a circular a ...

hangs in the central foyer, through all the floors, over a butterfly-shaped plate marked with the hours of the day. As a result of the rotation of the Earth, this functions as a decorative and reasonably-accurate clock. The building is also decorated with a number of plaster casts of classical friezes throughout the central atrium and a 19th-century copy of the Baptistery doors from Florence is located on the ground floor. These were part of the original design scheme by the architect

Library

The building also houses Preston City's Public Library, which is run by Lancashire County Council. The first librarian of the Harris Free Public Library was a William Bramwell who retired in 1916 aged eighty-one. The Harris library holds important book collections including the Shepherd Collection donated to Preston by Dr Richard Shepherd in 1761, with additions funded by the Shepherd bequest, local studies material, nineteenth-century journals, rare books and art books. Also the Spencer collection of illustrated children's books and chapbooks. At the time of the opening of the Harris, William Bramwell was also the librarian of the Dr Shepherd Library which found a home at the Harris having been located in various buildings and institutions across the town.

Gallery

File:Harris Museum Preston.jpg, The Harris File:Harris Museum detail 1.jpg, Detail of the sculptures above the columns File:Harris Museum and Art Gallery.jpg, The front of the building, as seen from the Flag Market File:Harris Museum Preston 20181224.jpg, The pediment, with the central figure of

File:Harris Museum Preston 1.jpg, The entrance and rotunda from the first floor File:Harris Museum Preston 2.jpg, The gallery entrances from the first floor landing File:Harris Museum Preston 3.jpg, The skylight pyramid at the top of the main atrium File:In the beys garden.jpg, ''In the Bey's Garden'', by

John Frederick Lewis John Frederick Lewis (1804–1876) was an English Orientalist painter. He specialized in Oriental and Mediterranean scenes in detailed watercolour or oils, very often repeating the same composition in a version in each medium. He lived for s ...

, in the museum File:Florence Baptistery Door Copy - Harris Museum.jpg, Copy of ''The Gates of Paradise'' - the east doors of The

Florence Baptistery The Florence Baptistery, also known as the Baptistery of Saint John ( it, Battistero di San Giovanni), is a religious building in Florence, Italy, and has the status of a minor basilica. The octagonal baptistery stands in both the Piazza del ...

. File:Lowry Millworkers 20181203.jpg, ''Millworkers'', by

L. S. Lowry Laurence Stephen Lowry ( ; 1 November 1887 – 23 February 1976) was an English artist. His drawings and paintings mainly depict Pendlebury, Lancashire (where he lived and worked for more than 40 years) as well as Salford and its vicinity ...

, oil on canvas, 1948 File:Grimshaw Golden Olden Time 20181203.jpg, ''In the Golden Olden Time'', by

John Atkinson Grimshaw John Atkinson Grimshaw (6 September 1836 – 13 October 1893) was an English Victorian-era artist best known for his nocturnal scenes of urban landscapes.Alexander Robertson, ''Atkinson Grimshaw'', London, Phaidon Press, 1996 H. J. Dyos and ...

, oil on canvas, c1870 File:Gribble Scapa Flow 20181203.jpg, ''Scapa Flow'' by B. F. Gribble, depicting the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow on 18 November 1918, oil on canvas, 1920 File:The Harris Museum, Art Gallery & Library.jpg, Blue hour photograph of the Harris Museum taken in the morning 5 March 2022

Proposed renovations

Following a successful bid for support from the

National Lottery Heritage Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

, in October 2020 plans were submitted for a £10.7M renovation and restoration project called ''#HarrisYourPlace'' with the aim "to establish the Harris as the UK’s first blended museum, art gallery and library". The project is said to include "much-needed conservation works" on the roof, stonework and basement to help address the building's "long-standing damp problem". It will also reveal some of the Harris’ original architectural details which have been hidden by previous building works, including reopening an original entrance way to improve accessibility. A new lift and toilet on the ground floor will improve the building's accessibility to disabled visitors, and a new staircase will replace the existing fire exit stairs. These proposed works are in addition to a £150K ''Children's Place'' scheme scheduled to open in 2024, which will redevelop the children's library space and improve facilities for school groups and families.

Appearances in media and products

The Harris features in the Preston version of

Monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

, launched in October 2020.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Cultural infrastructure completed in 1893 Art museums and galleries in Lancashire Decorative arts museums in England Grade I listed buildings in Lancashire Grade I listed museum buildings Libraries in Lancashire Local museums in Lancashire Museums in Preston Neoclassical architecture in England Textile museums in the United Kingdom Public libraries in Lancashire Art museums established in 1893 1893 establishments in England Grade I listed art galleries Grade I listed library buildings Buildings and structures in Preston