About Us

Bushey Museum

Bushey Museum Trust is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation - more information below.

Address
Bushey Museum & Art Gallery
Rudolph Road, Bushey, Hertfordshire, WD23 3HW

Opening times:
Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday
11.00 am to 4.00 pm

Phone
Museum - 020 8950 3233
Opening times: Thu-Sun 11am - 4pm
Office - 020 8420 4057
Opening times: Wed-Fri 10am - 4pm

Who are we?

The Bushey Museum & Art Gallery in Bushey, Hertfordshire has a local history collection, plus a major art collection spanning 200 years, with paintings, prints and drawings, sculpture, Bushey Heath lustre pottery and historic church silver as well as costume and embroidery.

The Museum has a unique artistic history - which is of national significance - and it majors on Sir Hubert von Herkomer RA with works of art, artefacts and ephemera relating to him and his famous Art School in Bushey. There is also a major collection of paintings by Herkomer's student Lucy Kemp-Welch, as well as works by other artists drawn to Bushey by its artistic reputation.

Art UK say on their website: "...the art collection is the largest in Hertfordshire and is mainly from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with special interest in the Monro Circle of artists, Sir Hubert von Herkomer, Lucy Kemp-Welch and the pupils of their Art Schools and other Bushey art schools."

Located in an Edwardian former Council building close to Bushey High Street, it features galleries with displays of local history; Herkomer and Lucy Kemp-Welch paintings and memorabilia, as well as other Galleries with changing displays, see What's-On.

Click on Museum Shop to see the wide range of local history books, greetings cards featuring local artists' pictures - and much more - which can be bought in the Shop at the Museum, or via this website. And there is also a link to the Art UK website (see below as well) where you can buy prints of over 120 paintings from our Collection. Well worth a look!

There is a Meeting Room which is available for hire to local societies or individuals for meetings, talks, etc.

Parking and Accessibility

There is limited on-site free parking and additional parking in Kemp Place (chargeable!) which is off the High Street opposite Rudolph Road. For more information about Accessibility click here.

The Visit Us page tells you how to get to the Museum.
The About Us page gives you more about the history of the Museum and what we have to offer.
The What’s On page includes details of all of our current Exhibitions.

 

Arts Council England

Bushey Museum and Art Gallery has Full Accreditation status with the Arts Council England (RD 1048). Visit their site here.

Art UK

Bushey Museum and Art Gallery is an Art UK Founder Partner. Visit their website here to see over 1000 of the paintings in our collection! And also visit their Art UK Shop herewhere you can buy prints of over 120 of the pictures in our collection!

Charity Commission

Bushey Museum Trust is a registered charity with the Charity Commission in England and Wales No. 294261.

Charitable Incorporated Organisation

In April 2023 the Museum successfully transitioned from a Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee to become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, saving many hours of work and simplifying the administration, particularly all that connected with preparing, examining and submitting the annual accounts.

© 2025, Bushey Museum Trust, a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. 

Current Exhibitions

Weather and Water
Council Chamber
Until June 2025
It is universally agreed that we can no longer ignore climate change. Who knows what winter next year will have in store for us. Come out of the storm and shelter in Bushey. More.

Frobisher Studio Work - Practising Art Now
Anne Blessley Gallery
Until October 2025
The Frobisher Studio is at the rear of the Bushey Museum site. This exhibition will show examples of artwork produced in this working Victorian studio.

Bushey Then and Now
Jubilee Room
This exhibition shows images that Jeff Owen has posted on the Facebook group Bushey Memories and History. The first Then and Now exhibition was in 2006, but Bushey keeps changing: the original ‘then’ images in this selection range from 1896 to 2007!
More

Future Exhibitions

Myrtle Broome - Artist and Egyptologist
Jubilee Room
From 5th July 2025
Myrtle Broome's family came to Bushey in about 1900. She studied with Hubert von Herkomer’s cousin, Bertha Herkomer. She made a notable contribution to the field of Egyptology.  More

Local Bushey History

Ground floor galleries
The gallery gives a social history of Bushey with maps, extracts of medieval documents, and some ancient artefacts. It includes local industries, schools, police and fire brigade history, the World Wars, transport, celebrities, and more! More.

This gallery also includes a collection of Bushey Heath Pottery, for more information, click here.

Hubert von Herkomer - paintings & memorabilia

A self-portrait of Hubert von Herkomer dated around 1900.

Hubert von Herkomer Gallery

The life, work and castle of Sir Hubert von Herkomer RA, also his School of Art, and including some of his most notable paintings. More.

 

A Herkomer painting not seen in public for 100 years is now on display!

'The Lady in White' by HerkomerThe Museum is delighted that it has acquired this unique Herkomer painting! Almost all of Herkomer's portaits were of men, but in 1885 he produced this portrait of Miss Katherine Grant - the painting known as 'The Lady in White'. Come and see it in the Herkomer Gallery. For more about this impressive painting, click here!

Click here to download this leaflet (pdf, 9.8MB)

Events

VE (Victory in Europe) Day - 80 Years Celebration
On Thursday 8th May, Britain celebrated the 80th anniversary of VE Day, commemorating the end of the Second World War in Europe.
To mark the event Bushey Museum is showing a photographic exhibition of Bushey in the war, and with garments from the Museum’s costume collection on display. These are in addition to our permanent WW1 and WW2 displays.

VE Day video - 'We were children in the war'
Click on the picture below to see the video.

Outings

Saturday 21 June 2025
Visit to Charleston House
Our summer outing is to Charleston. The farmhouse with its eccentric decor and beautiful gardens, nestled in the beautiful South Downs, was the home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant of the Bloomsbury set. The Gallery will be exhibiting Inventing Post-Impressionism and Izumi Kato.  More.

Saturday 22 November 2025
Outing to 'Christmas at Kew'
A day trip to see the Christmas Lights display at Kew Gardens.Tickets sell out rapidly, as early as May! More.

Date to be decided
Outing to William Morris Gallery
Some Friends are keen to visit the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow. Please let us know if you are interested. More.

Donations of Bushey-related artefacts

Our Curator of Social History said "I am very aware that, in contrast to when I started volunteering at Bushey Museum and Art Gallery some 17 years ago, we are not receiving a regular flow of donations of Bushey-related artefacts to display in the new 'recent arrivals' case. Items should have been used in Bushey or are related to Bushey, or with costumes it should be items which could have been worn in Bushey. Should you have anything you are happy to donate we shall be delighted to consider it. The sort of items are pottery, china, costume articles, books, pictures, records etc., and many others. These can be left with the stewards on duty and you will be informed as soon as possible if we would like to add them to the Museum's collection."

Bushey Restaurants

Click on the poster below to see a larger poster with details of 13 restaurants in Bushey! Enjoy!

 

 

Bushey Museum Jigsaws!

Fancy doing an online jigsaw? Just click on the picture... enjoy! And click here  to see more jigsaws!

Ploughing by Algernon Talmage
Ploughing by Algernon Talmage

Accredited by the Arts council, England            Link to the Art UK website                            Link to Hertsmere Borough Council website    Link to the Bushey Museum page on Facebook