Hove Museum and Art Gallery

http://www.brighton-hove-rpml.org.uk/Museums/hovemuseum/Pages/home.aspx

Hove Museum and Art Gallery is housed in a Victorian villa built during the 1870s by the architect Thomas Lainson. The villa was a private home until 1913 when it was used to house German prisoners of war.

In 1926 it was purchased by the Hove Corporation for use as a museum, opening to the public in 1927. The collection is an eclectic mix of artworks with a number of notable paintings by Duncan Grant and Ivon Hitchins and a small yet important collection of applied art. Hove is managed under the same museum service as Brighton Museum.

Guest editor’s note:
Hove is a lovely museum — the main gallery space is downstairs, upstairs is a labyrinth of smaller packed exhibition areas. There is a particularly good toy collection in the Wizard’s Attic, including Magical dolls' houses, farm sets and Edwardian tricycles hanging from the ceiling — if you were a little person I suspect you could spend a whole afternoon in there!

The Fine Art collection displays a number of landscapes including Ivon Hitchens' Forest, which ‘Nana’ from the television show The Royle Family was viewing when I strolled in. Hove Museum is the sort of place you’d want to keep to yourself — it’s too tightly packed upstairs to share. The tea room is a delight, with the best views across the garden and the Indian Gateway.

Reviewed by: Rachel Adams