What to See in Cheltenham - Top Sights and Attractions

Art gallery in Cheltenham, England. The Wilson, formerly known as Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, was opened in 1899. It offers free admission, and has a programme of special exhibitions. It was renamed The Wilson in honour of polar explorer Edward Wilson, a son of Cheltenham, in 2013 after the building was extended. The gallery and museum is managed by The Cheltenham Trust.

The museum is housed in part of a Regency building on Clarence Street (Cheltenham Library currently occupies much of the original building), designed as the Cheltenham Public Library by architect William Hill Knight, who also designed the Cheltenham Synagogue and Montpellier Walk.

In 2007 a national architectural design competition was launched by RIBA Competitions to extend the building, providing more space for the renowned Arts and Crafts collection. Through this process Berman Guedes Stretton were selected by Cheltenham Borough Council and the extension was completed in 2012.

Baron de Ferrieres, a former Mayor and Liberal MP for Cheltenham, gave 43 important paintings, mostly from Belgium and the Netherlands, to the town. He also donated £1,000 towards the building of a gallery in which to display them. The Museum was opened in 1907 in the adjacent former Schools of Art and Science. A major extension to the building by Hugh Casson was opened by the Princess Royal in September 1989, where the main entrance to the gallery is now situated.

The museum is particularly noted for its Arts and Crafts collection of furniture, textiles, ceramics, carvings, silver and jewellery which is recognised as an outstanding collection of international importance for which the Art Gallery & Museum has received Designated status.

Cheltenham's history is well represented, and in addition there are paintings spanning four centuries, oriental collections of pottery and costume, and archaeological treasures from the neighbouring Cotswolds.

The Edward Wilson gallery shows the life of the Antarctic explorer who perished with Scott on his expedition to the South Pole in 1912.^[2]

Wedding venue in Cheltenham, England. The Pittville Pump Room was the last and largest of the spa buildings to be built in Cheltenham.

The benefits of Cheltenham's mineral waters had been recognised since 1716, but not until after the arrival of Henry Skillicorne in 1738 did serious exploitation of their potential as an attraction begin. After the visit to Cheltenham in 1788 of King George III, the town became increasingly fashionable, and wells were opened up at several points round the town. Pittville, the vision of Joseph Pitt, was a planned 'new town' development of the 1820s, in which the centre-piece was a pump-room where the waters of one of the more northerly wells could be taken.

The Pump Room was built by the architect John Forbes between 1825 and 1830. It is a Grade I listed building standing at the northern end of Pittville Lawn with landscaped grounds running down to a lake. The building contains the original Pump, made of marble and scagliola, to which the waters are today fed by electric pumping.

The building has a colonnade of Ionic columns; the interior houses a ballroom on its ground floor. Further Ionic columns support a gallery under a dome from which music might be played; on upper floors there were a billiard room, library and reading room. Above the colonnade are three statues, by Lucius Gahagen, erected in 1827, of the goddess Hygieia, Aesculapius and Hippocrates.

The Pump Room and its grounds were managed during the 19th century by a succession of lessees, who offered the typical fare of pleasure gardens including menageries, exhibitions and balloon ascents. However the concession did not prove lucrative. Eventually Pitt himself went bankrupt and in 1890 the Room and the grounds passed into the ownership of the town council.

They are now part of The Cheltenham Trust, a charity which also manages the Cheltenham Town Hall, the Wilson Art Gallery & Museum, the Prince of Wales Stadium and Leisure @ - plus the town's Tourist Information Centre which has continued to use them for public events. The Pump Room is frequently used as a concert hall, especially during the Cheltenham Music Festival. At one time the upper floor housed a Museum of Fashion.

Following elections in 2007 the incoming Council discussed the possibility of selling the Pump Room but after widespread protests this proposal was later dropped in favour of a limited privatization which would retain the building's public use.^[7]

St. Pauls is one of a number of areas of the Cotswold town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. St. Pauls is home to the Francis Close Hall, a campus of the University of Gloucestershire, St. Paul's Church, and many leisure facilities. Numerous stories exist of the gallows that were once housed there when the area was characterized by fields rather than housing.

The area of St. Pauls takes its name from St. Paul’s Church at its centre. St. Pauls sits to the north-west of Cheltenham town centre and is a largely residential area of predominantly red-brick artisan housing built in the early 19th century. St. Pauls is located within a short walk of the town centre of Cheltenham, and has a population of approximately 5,500. Examples of the oldest housing in the area can be seen at St. Paul’s Street North, whose stuccoed houses date from the 1830s.

Francis Close Hall, a former teacher training college and now a campus of the University of Gloucestershire, is situated in St. Pauls and has a state-of-the-art studio, laboratory, ICT, Gloucester suite training restaurant and Learning Centre. Francis Close Hall, built in Tudor-Gothic style was constructed in 1849 by Samuel Daukes.

There are numerous leisure facilities located in and nearby St. Pauls. At Pittville Park nearby there are tennis courts, skating ramps and an 18-hole golf course. The park also houses Cheltenham Leisure Centre, which has three swimming pools, a gym and health spa. Prince of Wales Stadium, opposite the leisure centre, houses a running track and rugby field.

The recent Brewery development, in the town's Lower High Street, has brought new life to the area providing leisure activities, such as cinema, various shops and numerous restaurants.^[12]

Pittville is a residential suburb of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, founded in the early 19th century by Joseph Pitt. The population of Pittville Ward at the 2011 Census was 5,327. It contains Pittville Park, with its long gardens, two lakes, boat house, three cafes, tennis courts, menagerie, children's play area, 9-hole pitch and putt golf course, and one of Cheltenham's grandest and most celebrated buildings, the Pump Room. The upmarket tone of the area is set by the architecture: in addition to the Pump Room, Pittville contains some of the finest examples of Regency and Victorian housing in Cheltenham, including many of the town's largest houses. Schools in Pittville include Pittville School, and the private prep school Berkhampstead School. Gustav Holst's father, Adolph von Holst was organist at All Saints' Church, Pittville.^[17]