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Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery in the Drake Circus area of Plymouth, is the largest museum and art gallery in the city. It was built in 1907–10 by Thornely and Rooke in Edwardian Baroque style.
The Museum has collections of fine and decorative arts, natural history and human history. The museum's natural history collection consists of over 150,000 specimens and an historic natural history library and archive. Many prehistoric artefacts from Dartmoor, important Bronze Age and Iron Age material from Mount Batten and medieval and post-medieval finds from Plymouth are found in the human history collection alongside artifacts from ancient Egypt and other ancient cultures of Europe and the Middle East.
The Art Gallery collections include 750 easel paintings, over 3,000 watercolours and drawings, at least 5,000 prints and a sizeable collection of sculptures. A large proportion of the art was donated to the people of Plymouth in 1852 by William Cotton (1794–1863) and is known as the Cottonian Collection. It had been put together principally by the collector Charles Rogers (1711–1784), and includes works by Sir Joshua Reynolds who was born locally.
Grade II listed. Link
Closed in 2017 and converted into The Box a £37 million gallery and museum complex that will house seven collections in one building and is destined to become a key cultural attraction for the city and the region.
The Box (previously known as the Plymouth History Centre) will open as the flagship building for the Mayflower 400 commemorations in spring 2020.
A striking contemporary extension on the back of the former Museum and Art Gallery and Central Library is being built and St. Luke’s Church transformed.
The buildings will be linked by an outdoor public space with food, drink and retail outlets.

Created: Sat, 30 May 2015, Updated: Tue, 27 Mar 2018