Chair Discovery Centre
Visit the Chair Discovery Centre on Public Open Days.
Wycombe Museum announced the opening of our band new Chair Discovery Centre in February 2026.
Learn all about the Museum’s journey to turn this idea into a reality by reading the full annoucement.
Opening Information
The Chair Discovery Centre is FREE to enter on Public Open Days.
See Open Days and book tickets below. We recommend 1 hour to visit, and pre-booking your tickets.
Please note the Chair Discovery Centre is not open daily.
Upcoming Public Open Days
Click on any date to book tickets.
Getting to the Chair Discovery Centre
Admission
Admission is free on Public Open Days. Please book to help us manage flow of visitors.
Private Group Visits & Research Visits available by appointment only. See more info below.
Opening times
10am – 4pm on Public Open Days, with 12.30 – 1pm closure for lunch.
Last entry is at 3.30pm. Ticketed entry is available in 1hr time slots.
Find the Chair Discovery Centre
Chair Discovery Centre
St Mary’s Street
High Wycombe
Bucks, HP11 2HE
Email us
Email: info@wycombemuseum.org
On Foot
The Chair Discovery Centre is just a 350m walk from High Wycombe High Street, right by the Police Station, Social Club, and Fire Station. The entrance to the Chair Discovery Centre is on St Mary Street, about 20m from the turning on the A40 roundabout.
It is a 4-minute walk from Wycombe Museum.
By Train
The Chair Discovery Centre is a 500m walk from the Railway Station. Exit the station by Platform 1, and walk down Crendon Street to the bottom of the hill. Cross onto Queen Victoria Road, and again so you are by a small green space. Continue beyond the Police Station, and follow the pavement around onto St Mary Street. The entrace to the Chair Discovery Centre is on St Mary Street.
By Bus
The nearest bus stops are on Queen Victoria Road and High Wycombe High Street, both under 200m away. Bus connections also go to High Wycombe Train Station and Bus Station, each around a 10-minute walk away.
By Car & Parking
The Chair Discovery Centre does not have car parking. The nearest car parks are Wycombe Swan Car Park and at the Riverside Club. You are also welcome to park at Wycombe Museum on Priory Avenue and walk down. There is a small loading bay in front of the Chair Discovery Centre on St Mary Street suitable for drop-offs.
What to Expect at the Chair Discovery Centre
What is at the Chair Discovery Centre?
The Chair Discovery Centre is Wycombe Museum’s second site on St Mary Street in High Wycombe to house the town’s extensive and nationally significant chair collection. It’s home to 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.
What’s the difference between Wycombe Museum and the Chair Discovery Centre?
Wycombe Museum has many more chairs in our collection than we can display in our galleries. For years, hundreds of them have been carefully stored away out of sight. With the opening of the Chair Discovery Centre, our entire stored chair collection will be accesible to the public for the first time. It’s a place to learn more about High Wycombe’s furniture history, building on the stories told at Wycombe Museum’s Priory Avenue galleries.
The Chair Discovery Centre is as a working store for Wycombe Museum’s furniture collection and archives. It’s a place for staff to work and care for the collection, and we’re excited to welcome visitors for a peek behind the scenes.
There is lots of information to learn at the Chair Discovery Centre, but it is not a museum with curated galleries and displays. You may see some of our collection in the middle of being conserved. There may be objects wrapped for protection, or staff’s working notes on labels. Items may be removed from the store to put on display in our main museum galleries.
But we can guarantee you’ll always see lots of historically significant chairs.
If you want to learn all of the background history about the town’s furniture industry, Wycombe Museum’s Chair Museum galleries are the place to start.
You can also visit our Chair Collection home page for a full list of local furniture factories, a sample searchable database of our chairs, answers to Frequently Asked Questions and more.
When you arrive
Our Visitor Experience staff & volunteers will be here to welcome you and to answer any questions you have during your visit.
You will arrive into the Welcome Space before entering into the Chair Store.
At busy times, we may need to ask you to queue to enter the Chair Store.
How long can I stay?
There is no limit to how long you can stay in the Chair Discovery Centre outside of our opening hours on Public Open Days. Entry to the Chair Discovery Centre is in 1hr long timed entry slots. These are to help us control the flow of visitors through the store and reduce bottlenecks, but one you are in you can stay as long as you like.
Please be aware that we close between 12.30 – 1pm to allow a 30 minute lunch break for our staff and volunteers.
Last entry is at 3.30pm.
Personal Belongings
Can I bring my bags in with me?
Large bags, wet coats, and umbrellas are not allowed into the chair store. As this is a working museum store, we need to control the humidity to protect the furniture and archives. You will be able to keep small-sized bags with you, as long as they are dry. A public cloakroom is provided for you to store your items, but we recommend bringing as little with you as possible. All items are left at the owner’s risk.
Please be aware the store is not temperature controlled.
Central heating are not good for the chairs, and we do not have heating or cooling systems within the Chair Store itself. As such, the Chair Store can get quite cold in the winter and quite hot in the summer. Please take this into account when dressing for your visit.
Leaving buggies
We would advise against bringing a buggy to the Chair Discovery Centre. On dry, quiet days, you will be able to keep them with you during your visit, but on wet or busy days they won’t be allowed into the main Chair Store space.
Please be aware we have very limited space to store buggies.
Food & Drink
There is no eating allowed in the Chair Discovery Centre, and no food or drink are allowed into the Chair Store.
Bottled water is permitted in the Welcome Space.
There are no facilities to purchase food & drink at the Chair Discovery Centre. High Wycombe Social Club (on the ground floor of the Chair Discovery Centre) and Wycombe Museum serve a range of food & drink.
Types of Visits
Public Open Days
The Chair Discovery Centre will be open to everyone for free on several Public Open Days throughout the year. The dates for these Public Open Days will be advertised in advance. Please note that unlike Wycombe Museum, the Chair Discovery Centre is not open to the public daily.
See upcoming Public Open Days here.
Group Visits
Visits to the Chair Discovery Centre will be bookable by appointment for community groups, schools and colleges, clubs and societies. These visits can be paired with talks on High Wycombe’s furniture-making history. Charges will apply for our staff to privately open the Chair Discovery Centre and show your group around.
This service will be available from Autumn 2026.
For Researchers & Access to the Archives
The Chair Discovery Centre holds almost 250 chairs and Wycombe Museum’s extensive furniture archives and study resources.
Wycombe Museum’s stored collection is accessible for private research visits by appointment only.
This service will be available from Autumn 2026.
Facilities & Accessibility
Food & Drink
No food & drink is permitted in the Chair Discovery Centre, with the exception of bottled water in the Welcome Space. There are no facilities to purchase food & drink on site.
High Wycombe Social Club (on the ground floor of the Chair Discovery Centre) and Wycombe Museum serve a range of food & drink.
Unisex Toilets & Baby Change
Gender neutral single-stall toilets are located on the first floor of the Chair Discovery Centre. This includes an accessible toilet.
Baby changing facilities are available on the first floor.
Buggies
We would advise against bringing a buggy to the Chair Discovery Centre. If it’s unavoidable, please be aware that we have limited space to store them, and if your buggy is wet you won’t be able to bring it into the main Chair Store space.
Photography & Filming
We welcome photography and filming for personal use. We’d love you to share your snaps on social media, and don’t be shy to tag us. Please turn off your flash to help us protect our collection.
Dogs & Assistance Animals
Only service animals are allowed entry. Assistance animals must be under control for the duration of your visit, and kept on a lead. If your animal is not registered, we reserve the right to deny entry if it does not appear to be suitably trained.
No pets are allowed on site.
Accessibility Details
Getting around
There is step-free access to the Chair Discovery Centre from the entrance on St Mary Street, and to all parts of the Chair Store.
The Chair Discovery Centre is across two storeys, with lift access to both floors.
Seating
Our Welcome Space has seating and benches available to use, although it is limited. There is no seating within the Chair Store itself.
Assistance Animals
We welcome trained assistance animals. Your assistance animal must be under control for the duration of your visit, and kept on a lead.
If your animal is not registered, we reserve the right to deny entry if it does not appear to be suitably trained.
Pets are not allowed.
Accessible toilets
There is an accessible toilet on the first floor of the Chair Discovery Centre, which also includes a baby changing space. All of the toilets on site have electronic hand dryers, which can be quite loud.
Sounds in the Chair Discovery Centre
It can be a little bit loud in the Chair Store. The room is a bit echoey, and there is a dehumidifier running to help care for our collection and archives.
Our toilets have electronic hand dryers which can also be quite noisy.
Contact Us
If you would like to discuss or ask any questions about your visit or your accessibility needs, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Tel: 01494 957210
Email: info@wycombemuseum.org
Made possible by funding support from:
