Our current exhibitions

Camden Town to Garden City: work by Gilman, Gore and Ratcliffe

Spencer Gore, Harold Gilman’s House, 1912 Government Art Collection

9 March – 30 June 2024
A major exhibition of paintings and drawings by three members of the famous Camden Town Group who worked in Letchworth in the years before the First World War, with loans from museums across the country including Tate, the Government Art Collection and the National Museum of Wales.

The exhibition looks at Harold Gilman (1876-1919), Frederick Spencer Gore (1878-1914), and William Ratcliffe (1870-1955), and specifically at paintings they made while living in Letchworth, the world’s first Garden City. Many of these works have never been shown in North Herts since they were painted over a century ago.

Lord Chris Smith of Finsbury, Chair of the Art Fund, said: ‘There is no better place in the world for an exhibition of the works of Harold Gilman, Frederick Spencer Gore and William Ratcliffe than the North Herts Museum.’

W Ratcliffe, The Red Curtain, 1916

Sir Michael Palin, actor and comedian, and fan of the Camden Town Group of artists, said: ‘What I find so appealing is the attention to detail. They show us, with honesty and precision, the fine detail of everyday life at the turn of the twentieth century. Their subjects are bedrooms, kitchen tables, teapots and mugs. Apart from being beautiful works in themselves, they offer a wonderfully vivid snapshot of our social and cultural history. What people washed in, what crockery they used, how they decorated their rooms. These are very English paintings. They move me most of all because I recognise a truth there. They have captured a corner of English life in a way few others ever tried, and they should be treasured for that.’

Richard ‘Dick’ Walker, Hitchin’s Angling Legend

13 February – 7 April 2024

Richard Walker (1918-1985) was born and raised in Hitchin and was honoured with a Blue Plaque on the house where he was born, now 32 Fishponds Road. His grandfather introduced the four-year-old Richard to angling, a specific type of fishing using a fishhook and rod, and he refined his craft at Bearton Pond.

Throughout his life, Walker pioneered many new approaches and invented new technologies to allow people to catch larger fish, and inspired many young people to take up and continue their angling journey. He was dubbed ‘the most influential angler’ by the Canal and River Trust and avid fisherman Chris Tarrant met him once as a little boy, saying recently that Richard ‘completely changed the face of freshwater fishing.’

This exhibition, in The Arches, brings together material loaned from Richard’s family and other kind contributors including photos, many of his books, and magazine articles, either written about him or by him.

Future exhibitions

For upcoming exhibitions, please see here.

Museum Talks

For more information and to book tickets click here to go to Art Tickets, have a look at the events on our Facebook page or ask at the Museum reception and we can book it for you.

Are you part of a local group or society?

We offer a number of bookable talks given by our expert museum staff. The talks need to be pre-booked and cost £60. Talks can be held at the Museum or at your own venue; if your venue is outside the district, we have to charge travelling expenses.

They can be for up to 40 people. The talks usually last an hour and can be daytime or evening.

It is also possible to arrange online talks using platforms such as Zoom. Please ask for further details.

For more information or to book a talk please email Rebecca Barkus.

To see a full list of available talks, please click here.