The Novium, Chichester

About The Novium

”The Novium is the name of a museum in Chichester, West Sussex, southern England. The name comes from the Roman name for the city "Noviomagus Reginorum".The museum, designed by the architect Keith Williams following an architectural design competition managed by RIBA Competitions, has an area of 1,300 sq m which is approximately 2.4 times the size of the previous museum in Little London. The building is divided into three floors each of which will contain a gallery for exhibition. It contains a research and learning room as well as a collection store for the social history collection. The museum is built directly over the top of the Chichester's Roman Bath House complex which are displayed in the ground floor gallery.The collection is compiled of over 350,000 object that are made up of geological, archaeological and social historic artefacts. The social history and geological collections is made up of some 50,000 object which are housed within the new building, whilst the archaeological collection is contained in a purpose built store within the Discovery Centre located at Fishbourne Roman Palace.The museum was opened on 8 July 2012.History of Chichester District MuseumIn 1831, Dr John Forbes decided to form a Philosophical and Literary Society in Chichester and, as one of the objectives of this society, Chichester Museum was founded as a Natural History collection. The museum was initially located in the Royal West Sussex Hospital, and the collection was formed for donations from the general public. The Museum was later relocated to 45 South Street after plans for a move to 7 North Pallant where abandoned due to financial difficulty. Read more

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