Past exhibitions
Town and Country Wimbledon
4 February - 3 June 2012
Some 55 historic watercolours of Wimbledon, painted over two centuries between 1780 and 1985, are now on display in the first ever exhibition at the brand new Village Hall Trust Gallery. This is the first opportunity to see many of the works collected by the Museum of Wimbledon since its foundation 96 years ago in 1916. The paintings have been acquired through donations, bequests and works by local artists.
Wimbledon Park grows up
Saturday 4th June 2011 - Sunday 30th October 2011
An exploration of the changes wrought by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown's landscaping of the Spencer estate through important late eighteenth and early nineteenth century maps by John Haynes, Corris and for later years, Ordnance Survey maps of 1804 and 1894.
Light the lights - 100 Years of Wimbledon Theatre
Friday 29th October 2010 - Sunday 29th May 2011
A celebration of the centenary of Wimbledon Theatre, founded in 1910 by John Brennan Mulholland. Traces the changing fortunes of the venue through three phases - the early Mulholland days, the Peter Haddon era and the Theatre Company, and the revival in more recent years under the custodianship of the Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG).
Heart of Wimbledon
Saturday 6th March 2010 - Sunday 24th October 2010
A story told largely through maps of the shift of the heart of Wimbledon from the cosy environs of the Village in the nineteenth century, to down the hill to Wimbledon Town in the twentieth century. The growth of the railway and station complex was key to this transition, attracting jobs, industry and settlement in the town, which also became the administrative centre of the borough, with services and facilities to match a rapidly growing population.
Old Wimbledon by Vincent Lines 1928-31 - Drawings from the Wimbledon Borough News
Saturday 20th June 2009 - Sunday 28th February 2010
Vincent Lines (1909-1968) was a talented artist, who at the age of eighteen embarked upon a series of drawings of local views and historic buildings in Merton, Morden and Wimbledon. His work was published in the Wimbledon Borough News, accompanied by supporting articles written by Margaret Grant. Their legacy is an enduring record of what the area in and around Wimbledon was like on the brink of enormous environmental and cultural change, which would transform Merton, Morden and Wimbledon from sleepy surrey villages into bustling suburbs of the metropolis.
Literary Wimbledon
Georgette Heyer Saturday 6th December 2008 - Thursday 5th March 2009
Robert Graves Friday 6th March 2009 - Monday 15th June 2009
Mini-exhibitions based upon the Wimbledon Society Literary Walk and Talk programme, focusing on notable authors of the past who were born, lived or forged important connections in the Wimbledon Village area.
'Rose’s Story' - The WSPU in Wimbledon 1908-1915
Saturday 12th April 2008 - Sunday 30th November 2008
A local view of the epic struggle for women's suffrage during the early years of the twentieth century. Traces the campaign through the eyes of a remarkable young woman, Rose Lamartine Yates, who lived in Dorset Hall on Kingston Road from 1906 to 1935. In 1909 Rose joined the recently-formed Wimbledon branch of the militant Women's Social and Political Union and quickly became a leading figure in this vital stage in the development of female emancipation. It is an extraordinary story of impeccable logic and flawless argument met with entrenched prejudice, physical and mental abuse and sexual politics.
Wimbledon and the Slave Trade
Saturday 24th March 2007 - Sunday 29th July (Extended to Sunday 30th September) 2007
Wimbledon was home to both Slavers and Abolitionists. Slavers included Abraham Aguilar and Christopher MacEvoy, pitched against the enormous efforts of William Wilberforce and his sympathisers William Pitt the younger, Lord Grenville and Viscount Melville, who resided at what would become Cannizaro House. Joseph Marryat MP was somewhere in the middle of the fracas which would eventually see an aged Wilberforce triumph with the passing of the Emancipation Bill three days before he died in 1833.
Nelson At Home
Saturday 10th September 2005 - Sunday 27th November 2005
An examination of the home life of Britain's most famous Admiral, his mistress Emma Hamilton and Horatia. Their purchase of Merton Place and life in Merton at the very beginning of the nineteenth century. Our contribution to the Bicentenary celebrations of Nelson's life and untimely death.