Campaigners call drop in museum visits 'catastrophic'

The fall in visitor numbers to a city centre museum has been "catastrophic" since it began charging for entry, a campaign group has said.

Save Our Museum found footfall at the Museum of Oxford was down 70 – 80% compared to 2024/25 after a £4 entry fee was introduced.

The museum in St Aldate's, which opened in 1975, was free to enter until it introduced the charge in January.

A spokesperson for Oxford City Council said museum figures for the scheme were "monitored closely" and a new business plan for the museum would be considered in the autumn.

A spokesperson for the campaign said: "We are incredibly concerned that these figures are so low.

"It can't just be a matter of 'give it a year to bed in and hope that it improves'. Action needs to be taken now.

"A mistake was made in introducing charging and it needs to be rectified as soon as possible."

The council said it decided to bring it in due to a reduction in visitors and that it was no longer financially viable to keep subsidising it.

The campaign group said this "clearly isn't going to work" as the income raised so far is 61% lower than the council's projections – more than £53,000 less.

They added that it potentially meant donations would be down as people "are less likely to donate if they've already paid an entrance fee".

They said the free day that was still allocated every month saw a "significant" number of visitors, which equates to 13 – 23% of each month's total.

"It shows that people still want to come to the museum, as long as they don't have to pay," the campaign group said.

They added: "Remove those free days and the footfall figures are even more dire."

The group said it acknowledged that the data it received was from February until the third week of May, with visitor numbers likely to be higher over the summer.

A spokesperson for Oxford City Council said: "All museum figures are being monitored closely.

"These are early days for the new scheme and we are continuing to compile meaningful data.

"Following the results of the summer season, a new business plan for MOX will be considered by the cabinet in the autumn."

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