Civic award for town museum in former toilets

A successful transformation from disused toilet block to popular town museum is to be recognised with a Civic Trust award tomorrow.

Sleaford Museum will be given a special award by Sleaford and District Civic Trust for its imaginative improvement to the town facilities – after converting from a former public toilet block last year.

Announcing the awards, the trust praised the museum’s design for being “discreet and appropriate for its setting, constructed to a high standard” and a welcome addition to the resources and facilities of the town, “both visually and functionally”.

They added: “It is all the more deserving as it is a product of local community endeavour, both in its realisation and in its continuing and evolving service to the town.”

Sleaford Museum’s vice-chairman and design co-ordinator Jan Spooner said: “We are absolutely delighted. It’s such an accolade to know our dedicated work has been recognised and rewarded in this way. It’s thanks to the strong team of volunteers, committee members and support staff, and to all the local groups whose encouragement and belief helped us to create Sleaford Museum.”

The trust named the former Pizza Hot premises in Southgate as its “Mess of the year”, saying it remained in a sorry state.

They said: “There remain other eyesores, but for sheer squalor, nothing else can compete with it. It ruins the appearance of that part of the town.”

The panel also ooked at the “derelict” condition of Laundon House, in Eastgate, and the Riversdale Clinic in Westgate. They said both buildings “appear to lack routine maintenance, and have done for the past 20 or so years”. A plaque was presented to the Museum Trust at the civic trust’s AGM, last night (Wednesday) at the Catholic Church Hall, in Jermyn Street, Sleaford.