Graham Martin
Wimbledon Village Hall Trust Manager
Male / 5o / Aries
More than 5 times did Jacqueline tell me how amazing Graham is. ‘He’s the most knowledgeable person I’ve ever met when it comes to art! If he had studied art, he would be holding a Phd and working at the National Gallery.’ said Jacqueline.
I thought it would be really nice to speak with Graham as Jacqueline always suggested, Graham plays a big role in the building and is always supporting and working with the museum. Another thing that makes him an interesting character, ‘sure you’ve discovered, museums are absolutely full of women. It’s a very, very feminine world.’ said Jacqueline.
Could you talk about the relationship between Wimbledon Museum and the building it’s in?
The building was built in 1858 and they raised money locally. The portraits of Kazia Peache and James outside were two of the people that put a lot of money into it.
The museum’s been in this building for more than a hundred years since 1900. It first started in the Lingfield room next door and then when they wanted to put a snooker room in there, they let the museum have the bigger room and the full museum space.
It was the intention from the beginning in 1858 to have a museum here, but it didn’t happen for approximately 50 years.
Wasn’t Joseph Toynbee the first person that thought about having a local museum?
Joseph Toynbee was part of the group and we do have the deeds. They are hand scripted up there with their signatures with wax seals.
When the building was built, it only had the small bar, the reading room, the hall and then the stewards accommodation. It didn’t have these extra classrooms. So, sometimes the society used to meet in the hall, but it was someone’s big house on Southside and it wasn’t until 1878 and 1898 that they did the extensions of the classrooms next door.
So the intention for the people that put together Wimbledon Village Club and Lecture Hall, that’s now Wimbledon Village Hall trust, was to have an area where people could have somewhere to meet, have tea and coffee, a library, and have the big village hall for meetings and activities. The National Rifle Association used to have meetings in there, so did Wimbledon Rugby Club; and so did the magistrate school.
And during other times, including the WW2, nine families lived in the space, in the hall, where it had been bombed out locally.
Portraits of Kazia Peache and James
Hints on the formation of local museums
1863 by Josheph Toynbee
Josheph Toynbee
Polly Toynbee’s comment written on the museum’s comments book.
When you have a bad decade over the years, in times just before the second world war, they thought the place was so underused and in poor condition, they might close it. But lucky enough, it got taken over by the local community and used during the Second World War, which raised its use and raised its popularity again.
We’ve now had a time of the last 20 years where it’s been popular and being used again with the improvements in the museum built by Norman Plastow. Before that, it was mainly tables in the middle with pictures around the outside. So, the new formation where they did the room up and got designers to come in, you know, different new ways of telling the story.
In the end, we are very fortunate that we were registered as a charity. Custodians are looked after by volunteers and trustees, so there’s no benefit.
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Could you talk a bit about your personal background?
I’ve worked here since I was 18. I started part-time downstairs in the bar in 1991. The museum was upstairs, still having their meetings and everything. So obviously, it was 32 years ago.
Yeah,
I guess before you were born. Yeah.
When the bar manager retired, we put an advertisement out in the national magazine for pubs and clubs and invited people to apply for the manager’s position. I also applied, I was only 21 at the time. Lucky enough, they said, ‘Well, we know you, why don’t you give it a go?’ I’ve been looking after the site for more than 30 years.
We’ve got a bit busier over the years. The hall has regular hirers with the Montessori School, Village School of Dance, Kingsgate Church, etc. And then the gallery was built in 2011 by Norman. We always wanted schools to use
the gallery and we couldn’t work it out. We realised that schools don’t have a lot of spare time dedicated to putting on an exhibitions. So that’s when Michael came up with the Young Wimbledon Artists competition (YWA), where we take the artworks from high school students in Merton Borough.
So that’s what’s been nice there. Local people have been invited. They come and enjoy it. I also purchased some of the artwork and the money went back to the students, buying art tools.
As part of young artists, we allow the local schools to use the gallery without charge. They can come and put on shows, it doesn’t cost them too much money so they can have their events here.
YWA Show 2023
Currently, Jo Holdsworth is doing her artist in residence in the gallery with the museum, will there be more connections between the spaces in the future?
Usually, in the first three months of a year, the museum has the option to put on another show in the space in the gallery.
So they can tell a story and have all the extra walls to do more pictures, more 3D stories and more descriptions because a lot of their display in there can’t be changed. They did one about women and train stations in the past and they had about 1700 visitors over two months. For a local museum that was excellent for them.
We are doing children art activities with the museum over the remembrance weekend this November. The museum could do in their object of the month and tell more stories about the second world war in the area.
ago by a family that used to live in the area. I think their great grandfather has sent back poems and stories from one of the apes, I think it might be Belgium or France, where they’ve sent back stories from the 20s with pressed flowers. And when you opened it, it still had the coloured press flowers in it, and that would be really nice to let some of the children see and understand it.
It’s difficult now, my grandparents and great-grandparents had been in service and remembered the second world war, but now younger people, they don’t have a living relative that served in one of the big world wars.
It used to be such a big thing. Now, it’s not. We need to explain it to people and let people know the history, isn’t it?
Talking about history and war, I remembered they have a very nice book that was donated to them about four or five years
What is your feeling about the site?
My thing is that I’m very very lucky that somebody invited me and his name was John Terrell, to come and see if I would like to help behind the bar.
I wake up in the morning, I’m happy to come to work partly because you don’t know what’s going to happen because you’ve got the museum, the Lingfield room, the gallery, the hall and the bar. There’s no one day that’s ever the same.
Also, this building was put together such a long time ago. And we’re so lucky that people saved and put this here.
It’s just my little time, any of the staff here, Lottie’s time, Jacqueline’s time in the museum. We’re here just doing a little bit to keep this site running.
And then in the future we hope that the next people carry on and look after it
because there’s all different groups and communities that use the hall.
And you’re seeing children come to the workshops and coming to the art groups.
They’re going out to other places to tell the story.
Then downstairs is Wimbledon Village Club, a local community, where local people come and meet their friends. And in the daytime, lots of them are single people, either widowed or bachelors or people just come out and sit and chat. In the evenings they come socialise after work or a bad day.
So, to me and I know some people don’t like the word but
it’s a community centre with loads of different factors all within it.
Volunteers are telling the story in a different way in the museum.
It’s quite handy or very lucky that we have two entrances, so you can have: young children going into that side to Montessori school
seventy year-olds coming inside in the morning to have a mug coffee and read the papers
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Picture of the site from the WVC website
