A COLD CAVERNOUS HANGAR OF A BUILDING

We’re standing in a cold cavernous hangar of a building on a less than lovely industrial estate somewhere in Leicester. From the outside it could be a factory or warehouse. However, we’re on an organised tour of Leicester Museums Store and to step inside is to enter a world of wonders.

So in we go, past the quarantine room where every new acquisition needs to stay for long enough to make sure it’s free from the kinds of insect that might enjoy chomping its way through the clothing collection and then into the collection rooms proper – a series of huge rooms, crammed with shelving housing an astonishing array of objects. We’re all dressed up warmly and we need to be. There has to be a constant year-round temperature, which isn’t all that warm.

And on we walk.
Roman mosaics, sewing machines, pianos, dolls’ houses.

As we walk around, we learn that it’s a mixed collection, which is to say that there are objects made of metal, others from wood and so on. So the Museum also needs to control the humidity. Too damp and anything made from iron rusts. Too dry and wood starts to crack.

And on we walk.
Sculptures, baskets, sock-making machinery and (God help us) toilets

As the oldest free-entry museum in the country (we learn) it’s been collecting things for a long time. These days there’s a clear collection policy in place. They’re not interested in acquiring more old stuff just because it’s old – there has to be a clear link with Leicester or someone from there, who lived there etc. Essentially, there needs to be a story attached to an object. So it’s a no to acquiring yet another sewing machine. However, the sewing machine that they used to have at Leicester City Football Club to mend the shirts, well that’s different. And there it sits, complete with royal blue cotton still threaded into it.

And on we walk.
Stuffed birds and animals, clothing (always hanging, never folded) chests of drawers and traps pulled by ponies

Come to that, the museum isn’t just interested in old stuff anyway. It actively collects items from the recent past – very recent, in fact. Remember the yellow-painted markings on pavements during Covid reminding us all to keep our distance? The steel stencils they used for those are in the stores. Nearby, lies the Café sign from the old St Margaret’s Bus Station, next to the Leicester Market sign taken down prior to the area’s redevelopment. All saved for posterity. The polar bear used as the logo on Fox’s Glacier Mints? The factory making them may no longer be in Leicester but the bear has stayed behind and is standing quietly in the corner.

So, here’s the thing. The Museum isn’t just a collection of objects. It’s a store of stories, chronicling memories of the present for the people of the future.

Outside it’s back to a bleak industrial estate on a bleak winter’s day. Collars turned up, we head back to the car but warmed just a little bit perhaps by the notion that in an uncertain world, at least in this little part of Leicester, the future’s in good hands.

Guy Silk