Roman museum falls short of visitor number target

Leicester's new £16.8m Roman museum has fallen short of its visitor target, according to latest figures.

Leicester City Council opened Jewry Wall Museum in July following a four-year revamp of an older museum in the former Vaughan College building in St Nicholas Circle.

The authority set a target of getting 31,578 people through the doors by the end of March.

However, it has told the BBC that 26,647 people had visited the attraction by 16 April.

Leicester mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said he believed the museum would succeed in the longer run.

"It's a long project and it's about looking to the future and bringing visitors to Leicester," he said.

"Certainly, whenever I have been there, there has been quite a busy crowd of people just going 'wow' at what has been created."

The museum stands next to the landmark Jewry Wall itself, the remains of a bathhouse that served the old Roman city, known as Ratae, from about AD 160.

Work on the creation of the new museum began in 2021, but was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the original contractor going bust.

Green Party city councillor Patrick Kitterick said: "The figures show what most people could see.

"The museum's business plan was over-optimistic for its number of visitors, given that the most interesting feature, the Jewry Wall, can be seen for free from the roadside.

"We need to come together and work out what the future of the museum looks like because the current business plan isn't working.

"We need to have an honest debate about how we take it forward."

Soulsby compared the museum to the National Space Centre, which opened in Leicester in 2001.

"I remember the early days when the space centre opened," he said.

"People said it was failing, that it would never work.

"Last time they counted there were 300,000 visitors a year."

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