Britain's only Huguenot museum has closed its Rochester High Street site after 11 years. Trustees say it is seeking a new home, not shutting for good.

The Huguenot Museum has left Rochester High Street. It closed its site at 95 High Street from 1 October, and its website now tells visitors it is “temporarily closed”.

It opened in 2015 as the first and only museum in Britain dedicated to Huguenot history. The museum says it has welcomed more than 50,000 visitors since.

Its trustees insist this is not a final closure. The museum’s announcement says the board decided “now is the right time to explore a range of options for the museum’s future”. Those options include new ways of telling the story and “a new home better suited to the museum’s future”.

What happens to the collections

The museum has set out where its objects are going while it has no building:

  • the French Hospital’s historic collection, which the museum looked after, goes back to the French Hospital for safekeeping
  • other loans go back to their lenders
  • key exhibits will be lent to other museums, where the public can still see them

The French Hospital is the Huguenot charity founded in 1718 that now runs 55 almshouse flats in Rochester. Its collection is part of why the museum was in the city at all.

The last exhibition in Rochester featured Sarah Lethieullier’s dolls’ house from the 1730s, on loan from the National Trust’s Uppark. September was its final month on show.

What the trustees said

Tessa Murdoch, who chairs the board of trustees, said: “This is not the end of the Huguenot Museum’s story but the beginning of its next chapter.”

She thanked the museum’s funders, partners and “local council”, and its staff and visitors. She said recent weeks had brought “generous donations from supporters helping to fund the next stage of our journey”.

“We look forward to sharing our plans for the future in the coming months,” she said.

The museum has not said where it might go, or whether a new home would be in Medway.

What is still running

The museum says three things continue during the move:

  • family history research help
  • its online resources
  • a programme of events in London and Rochester

Updates go on the museum’s website and its Eventbrite page. Its next listed event is a talk, Protestant but still French: West End craftsmen.

What it means for you

  • You can no longer visit the museum at 95 High Street. Do not plan a trip around it.
  • Researching Huguenot ancestors? The family history service is still running. Contact the museum through its website or on 01634 789347.
  • Want to support it? The trustees say donations are funding the next stage. The museum’s site has a Support Us page.
  • Looking for something else on the High Street? Our things to do in Medway page lists the city’s other museums and attractions.

We will report the museum’s plans when it publishes them.