Rugby Revitalised

07 Opportunity area

Rugby Art Gallery and Museum and Little Elborow

Rugby Art Gallery and Museum has welcomed residents and visitors for more than 25 years. Alongside Rugby Library and the Visitor Centre, it is one of the town centre’s best-used public buildings, attracting more than 100,000 visitors a year.

Rugby Art Gallery, Museum and Library at dusk: a buff-brick building with a curved metal roof and a tall glazed centre showing exhibition banners and lit galleries, with steps up to the entrance and people walking past.

The Council is now considering improvements to the building and surrounding area to make the museum more accessible, improve the visitor welcome, provide more flexible space for exhibitions and learning, and introduce the infrastructure needed to operate more commercially.

Framework plan for Rugby Art Gallery and Museum and Little Elborow Street. A full description follows.

Key

  • Site boundary
  • Listed building
  • St Matthew's Church, a vacant listed building
  • Rugby Art Gallery and Museum
  • The Registry Office
  • Retained building
  • Pedestrian movement between Sheep Street and Rugby Art Gallery and Museum through Drury Lane
  • Improved surface
  • Town centre link
  • Rugby School link
  • Key gateway corner
  • Potential future public realm improvements
  • Initiatives to improve appearance through servicing enhancements
  • Existing tree
  • Public green space
  • Residential or mixed use beyond the site
  • Town centre use beyond the site

Framework plan for Rugby Art Gallery and Museum and Little Elborow Street.

Read a full description of this plan

The plan shows the Rugby Art Gallery and Museum and Little Elborow Street area inside a red site boundary: a block between Corporation Street on the left, Little Elborow Street at the top, Drury Lane and Wool Street on the right, and St Matthews Street and Warwick Street at the bottom. ASDA is labelled to the north. The colours follow the key.

  • Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, shown in purple, fills the centre of the site.
  • The Registry Office, shown in orange, sits between Elborow Street and Bloxam Place.
  • Listed buildings, shown in yellow, stand beside the Registry Office, on Bloxam Place and in a long, narrow block to the right of the gallery.
  • St Matthew’s Church, a vacant listed building, stands at the corner of Bloxam Place and Warwick Street.
  • Other buildings are retained buildings.

Along Little Elborow Street, at the top right, a strip is marked as an improved surface. Pedestrian movement between Sheep Street and Rugby Art Gallery and Museum runs along it, out to Drury Lane and along Wool Street. The right-hand edge of the site, along Drury Lane, is marked for initiatives to improve its appearance through servicing enhancements.

The corner of Corporation Street and Warwick Street is a key gateway corner. The corner of St Matthews Street and Lawrence Sheriff Street is marked for potential future public realm improvements. Existing trees and public green spaces sit between the buildings.

Large arrows show the town centre link to the north-east and the Rugby School link to the south-east. Land south-west of Warwick Street is residential or mixed use beyond the site.

Making more of an important cultural building

A recent feasibility study found that while the gallery and museum remain well used, parts of the building are becoming harder to maintain and some facilities no longer work as well as they once did. Areas for improvement include access and navigation, ageing building services, and spaces for learning, exhibitions and events. Proposals include a better main entrance, more flexible gallery spaces, improved facilities for schools and community groups, and a rethink of the café and shop. Work is also planned to improve energy efficiency and reduce running costs and carbon emissions.

Connecting with the wider town centre

The area around Little Elborow Street is one of the main approaches into the southern part of the town centre. Improvements to surrounding streets and public spaces would make it easier to move between the gallery and museum, Rugby Central and the emerging Cultural Quarter. The Delivery Plan also identifies opportunities for creative activity nearby, including rehearsal space and facilities for children and young people.

The area today

Rugby Art Gallery and Museum and Little Elborow reimagined

Timeline

What happens next

The Council is developing a preferred option and intends to seek external funding. An expression of interest is planned for the National Lottery Heritage Fund, with any major refurbishment subject to further approvals and funding decisions.

Other opportunity areas

For more information on our work to regenerate Rugby town centre, please contact the Major Projects and Regeneration Team.

Contact the team