Sarah Southerton examines whether attempts to encourage access to museums have been successful

In the 2001 Budget statement, chancellor Gordon Brown announced to MPs that a deal had been struck between the Treasury and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport under which entry to Britain’s national museums and galleries would be free of charge. Although institutions had argued that such a move would rob them of their VAT rebates if entrance fees were abolished altogether, the chancellor insisted that rules would be changed to allow the policy to be implemented at a cost of £50 million a year until 2005.

Three years on from the government’s announcement things are looking good, at least at first glance. In April this year, museums and galleries reported that 11 million extra visitors had walked through their doors since the scrapping of entrance fees in December 2001. On average, visitor numbers increased by 72 per cent, with some attractions faring even better. The Victoria and Albert Museum saw an increase of 117 per cent over two years, while the Science Museum has attracted 120 per cent more customers.

The National Museum in Liverpool experienced a 106 per cent rise in visitor numbers, while the scrapping of fees led to a 38 per cent increase in people visiting the National Railway Museum in York.

And the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester has seen an increase in annual visitor numbers from 300,000 to 380,000. “Getting rid of the charge has had an overriding positive effect,” said spokesman Val Smyth. “It has enabled people to come back as many times as they like, to explore as much of the museum as possible.”

However, since free entry applies only to national museums and galleries its benefits have been felt mainly in London, with smaller regional attractions left struggling. The director of the Campaign for Museums, Ylva French, argues that the abolition of admissions charges has “generally been a good thing as it has introduced more people to museums and galleries”, but the concentration of the policy in London has caused problems elsewhere. Of the 1,500 museums and galleries in England, only 50 have felt the benefits of the government’s generosity, the majority of which are in the Capital.

"This has made it more difficult for those museums in other parts of the country which have to continue charging,” she said. “People ask ‘why aren’t these free too?’ As a result they have not seen the same rise in popularity.”

It is not just those attractions that continue to charge admission fees that have seen their numbers fall; museums and galleries that did not charge before implementation of the policy have seen competition increase. The numbers of visitors to these have fallen by some 70,000. These attractions, including the four Tate galleries, have not received government compensation, unlike those that have scrapped charges, and some have struggled as a result. This scenario has been playing itself out at the British Museum, which last year introduced 75 voluntary redundancies and a series of cost-cutting exercises.

But negative consequences of the policy are not confined just to those still charging fees, or those who have never charged admission prices. The 50 national museums and galleries now face increased costs as a result of increased interest from Joe Public. The Natural History Museum has experienced a 74 per cent increase in visitor numbers to 2.9 million since scrapping its £9 charge. As a result, however, extra members of staff have had to be employed to manage the crowds, whose presence has had a negligible effect on revenues from the shops and cafes.

A report by the London School of Economics and Imperial College highlighted the difficulty the museum faced in competing with other, private, facilities that continue to charge visitors for entry, and recommended an increase in support on the basis of its “value to the nation”. “The resources of the [museum] will have to be able to increase at least in line with leisure expenditure in the wider market,” it said. Despite an annual grant of £38 million from the government, director of the Natural History Museum Sir Neil Chalmers warned there were “alarm bells” over its ability to compete. “The nation should be proud of what the museum is achieving despite an ever-changing and increasingly competitive environment,” he said.

The Natural History Museum is not alone: earlier this year a consortium of British museums called for an extra £115 million a year from Whitehall to fund modernisations, extend access to artefacts and make acquisitions for their collections.

But the overriding issue for museums and galleries in Britain is competition, and in response the Campaign for Museums in May held a "museum and galleries month" to encourage more people to visit attractions both with an entrance fee and without.

“Museums are modernising and becoming more interactive to persuade a wider range of people to explore them,” said Ylva French. “It has been shown time and again that visitors are prepared to pay to see something special. Museums and galleries are succeeding by adding extra value to their attractions, rather than just making everything free.”

Despite the problems faced by some attractions, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has hailed the policy of free admissions as a “spectacular” success. “It is a key part of the government’s cultural policy that obstacles to admission should be tackled,” said a spokesman. “Clearly admission fees are the greatest obstacle.”

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