3 July 2025

Sad news comes from Henley. In a press release, the River & Rowing Museum writes that the Museum will close in September. It was in November 1998 that Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the Museum. The press release reads:

The Foundation of the River & Rowing Museum is announcing that it will close its doors to the public for the last time on Sunday, 21st September, and almost all the team will leave shortly after that date. Existing bookings for school visits and event space in September will be honoured. Patrons and Annual Pass holders will be contacted.

The focus of the few remaining team members will be to find new homes for the Museum’s extensive collections, following heritage sector best practice. We are in the process of reaching out to all lenders of collection items. The four core collections – Henley, River, Rowing and John Piper – amount to over 35,000 physical items. The Henley collection consists of some 6,000 items – around 15% of the total – whilst the largest collection is the international rowing collection, with over 13,000 items.

The Museum’s struggle to achieve financial sustainability is well known. With an endowment depleted by essential building works and significant increases in the cost of operation, recent net losses have averaged £1m a year. Consequently, the Foundation Trustees have taken the extremely difficult decision to close the Museum whilst there are still sufficient funds to undertake this in an orderly manner

A key factor behind the failure of the enterprise has been the scale of the building and the subsequent cost to maintain it, which is way beyond that of a specialist museum in a small market town. The total floor area of the Museum’s buildings equal almost an acre – excluding the car park.

Going forward, a new use for the building needs to be found urgently – a new museum could occupy part of it, but such a museum cannot itself support the building or manage it going forward. If this is approached pragmatically, the Foundation could have the funds to help create a new, but much smaller, Henley Museum.

Options are also being explored to see if our river education programme can continue to be delivered via outreach in schools and alternative venues. The Museum inspires 4,000 school children annually, including 350 with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Chair of Trustees David Worthington said, “The quality of the original concept cannot be underestimated, however, ultimately the venture was just too ambitious – six galleries, multiple public spaces, two classrooms, a 5,000-square-foot storage facility and a 35,000+ object collection. It was just too much.

“I want to give thanks and pay tribute to the thousands of hours of commitment, heavylifting and simple belief that have come from the leadership, employees and the volunteers, from patrons, members, sponsors, trustees and more. Everyone has tried to make it work – and on one level we have – it has been a great museum, lauded when opened, enjoyed by well over two million people, remembered by second and third generations and over one hundred thousand school children. But in the end, however, exciting it might have been, whatever changes might have been made, the financial challenge was simply too great.”

Our final weekend of 20th and 21st September coincides with this year’s Heritage Open Days festival, so come and celebrate the end of a long and happy era with us! Enjoy free admission and more as part of the festival, and make the most of your final visit – whether you’ll be exploring the Wind in the Willows experience, enjoying the Rowing or Henley collections, or just soaking up the atmosphere on our beautiful cafe terrace overlooking the meadows. We hope to see you there.

[Signed]
Kevin Sandhu,
On behalf of the River and Rowing Museum Foundation