Wycombe Museum, also known as The Chair Museum, is excited to announce the Chair Discovery Centre: a new second site on St Mary’s Street in High Wycombe to house the town’s extensive and nationally significant chair collection.
High Wycombe was once known as ‘The Chair Making Capital of the World’. Some of Wycombe’s most iconic products include wooden wheelback Windsor chairs and 20th century G-Plan and Ercol furniture. This chair-making heritage has shaped both the town itself and the global story of furniture making. Wycombe Museum’s collection tells that story, as well the broader history of the Wycombe area.
What is the Chair Discovery Centre?
The Chair Discovery Centre is Wycombe Museum’s new site, situated above the High Wycombe Social Club. Its main function is as a store, housing wonderful items from the collection that don’t fit in the museum. This includes a lot of chairs (almost 250 of them!), our unique furniture archives, reference books, and study resources.
But more than that, the Chair Discovery Centre is a place for you to explore our collection on a deeper level. Building on the stories told at the Museum’s Priory Avenue site, it’s a place to learn more about High Wycombe’s furniture history. On regular open days throughout the year, we will welcome visitors for a peek behind the scenes and to delve deeper into the local chairmaking story. The Chair Discovery Centre will be open for all – chair experts, school groups, local history enthusiasts, and the general public alike.
“High Wycombe as we know it was built on its chair-making industries. Our collections reflect this incredible story. I am so excited that our chairs will finally have a home where everyone can go and visit.”
– Museum Director, Roz Currie
What made this possible?
Like most museums, we have more objects in our collection than we can house at our main site. For over 25 years, items that didn’t fit have been tucked away in off-site stores – including many significant, unique and beautiful chairs. Over time, conditions in these stores have become unsuitable, but we could not afford to move out. For over a decade, we have been striving to find our collection a suitable new home.
In 2022, the museum partnered with Buckinghamshire Council and the Future High Streets project and have been working towards a major transformation. Buckinghamshire Council purchased the High Wycombe Social Club’s building, have renovated it, and are leasing us the top floor – previously the ballroom. Working with experts from English Heritage we have transformed this space into a sustainable store, protecting the collection, while reducing future energy consumption and cost.
We’re grateful for additional financial support that has helped us get this project over the finish line. It has paid for essential planning and conservation work to get the collection ready for our new store. We’d like to thank the Association of Independent Museums, Heart of Bucks, the Julia Rausing Trust, Museums Development South East, Pilgrim Trust, Red Kite Community Housing, and the Regional Furniture Society, plus our fantastic volunteers for their gifts of time.
Wycombe Museum’s collection belongs to you, the people of High Wycombe & Buckinghamshire. It’s our job at Wycombe Museum to look after it. Because of The Chair Discovery Centre, your collection is now finally somewhere safe, somewhere where you can enjoy it, and somewhere it will be protected for future generations. This project is the culmination of over a decade of work. It’s an understatement to say that we, the Museum team, are thrilled.
Our new Chair Discovery Centre logo, featuring Wycombe’s most famous chair design – the Wheelback Windsor chair.
Since December 2023 we have been carefully conserving, cleaning, and preparing our collection to move into its new home.
Wycombe Museum’s reference library, packaged and waiting to be shelved in its new home.
Chairs and archives in their temporary store, ready to be cleaned and prepared for the move.
The gleaming copper facade and entrace to the new Chair Discovery Centre, accessible from St Mary’s Street.
What does this mean for Wycombe Museum?
Wycombe Museum will remain at our Priory Avenue home. There, our furniture, art and history galleries tell local stories. It’s the place to go to learn about the High Wycombe area, including Marlow, Stokenchurch, Princes Risborough and the surrounding villages. Our café, serene garden, and event programme make it a place to visit time and time again.
The Chair Discovery Centre is a second site being opened in addition to Wycombe Museum, for people who want a deeper understanding of the chair collection. It’s our mission to use our collections to help local people feel proud of where they live, and the Chair Discovery Centre helps us achieve that goal.
Wycombe Museum will continue to be open to everyone, five days a week. It is always free to enter.
“The chair collection has something for everyone wanting to understand and appreciate Wycombe’s chair making heritage. It is full of unique items, including a chair by one of the earliest known Windsor chair makers, beautiful hand-drawn designs and manuscripts, a rare ‘upside down’ chair and an example of G-Plan’s ‘Worlds’ Most Comfortable Chair’, and many more iconic locally made chairs.”
– Museum Curator, Catherine Grigg
How can I visit the Chair Discovery Centre?
The Chair Discovery Centre will open in Summer 2026. Check the button below for most current information.
Visitors will be welcomed free of charge on regular open days through the year. We look forward to being able to share more details soon, and we cannot wait to welcome you into your new Chair Discovery Centre.
Made possible by funding support from:
