Council set to introduce entry charge at Museum of Oxford

Visitors will have to pay up to £4 to visit the Museum of Oxford, after the council decided to introduce an entry fee for the first time in the museum’s history.

The decision was approved unanimously by Oxford city council’s cabinet at their meeting yesterday (Wednesday, October 22).

The fee will be introduced in January 2026, costing £4 for standard admissions and £2 for concessions.

The proposal faced opposition from Oxford West & Abingdon MP Layla Moran, and a petition calling for the museum to remain free of charge has had more than 650 signatures.

The museum underwent a £2.8 million refurbishment in 2021 and is marking its 50th anniversary this year.

It contains several Oxford artifacts, including Alice Liddell’s Red Cross medal, who inspired the Alice in Wonderland novels, St Frideswide’s grave slab, and the Cutteslowe walls with metal spikes, which separated the council estate from middle class homes.

Marta Lomza, who previously worked as community engagement & exhibitions officer at the Museum of Oxford for six years, spoke against the plans at the meeting.

She said: “This poses serious and reputational risks to the council.

“We now have a proposal which does not even list community partners on the concessions list, risking a situation where people will have to pay to see their own objects on display at the museum.

“This will have a negative impact on the relationships between the museum staff and the community partners.

“At a time where there are strong community reactions regarding the county council’s congestion charge, there’s an increased risk this will add more arguments to people who think our local authorities simply ignore the opinions of their residents.

“I believe this is a wholly inadequate proposal which includes little to no evidence, poor understanding of financial modelling, editorial errors and simply bad maths.

“Most concerningly, it displays an attitude to Oxford’s residents which can only be described as contemptuous.”

Councillor Alex Hollingsworth, cabinet member for planning and culture, said the charge was needed because it was “not sustainable” for the council to keep subsidising it.

He said: “The Museum of Oxford has been very successful at the work it has done, as a place where the culture and history of this city’s people can be celebrated.

“However, we must not forget that the creation of its museum in its current format … was with an aspiration that it could be self-sustaining financially, and that has never been achieved.

“The council has agreed to spend £152,000 a year on subsidising the museum, but costs have risen and hoped for sources of funding … have fallen very far short of their objectives.”

He added that museum received around £5,000 in voluntary donations from the visitors last year, but that the cost of running the museum were closer to a quarter of a million pounds.

The council reports that footfall at the museum has reduced with 55,000 visitors in 2024-25, significantly lower than the 74,000 visitors per year before 2021.

This has led to a £77,000 shortfall for the council in 2024/25.

Under the charge, some groups would still be able to go to the museum for free, including children under 5, those who receive state benefits, Oxfordshire school bookings and city council employees.

Concessions include children over five, non-Oxfordshire based school bookings, students and blue light card holders.

The cabinet said they would look into adding other groups to the list of concessions.