The Novium

The Novium
A picture of The Novium Museum from Tower Street.
Location of The Novium
General information
Type	Museum
Location	Tower Street, Chichester, West Sussex
Coordinates	50°50′15″N 0°46′53″W / 50.8374°N 0.7813°W / 50.8374; -0.7813
Inaugurated	2011/12
Design and construction
Architect	Keith Williams
Website
http://www.thenovium.org

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.

In 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.

In 1851 interest in the museum was motivated by the Great Exhibition in London, and the decision of the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland to hold their annual conference in Chichester. This led to a boom of local interest in local heritage, and extensive excavations were carried out in the area.

The 1890s saw a dramatic decline in interest, which led to the unfortunate decision to sell artefacts to support the museum. In 1914 the museum building was commandeered by the army and rumours of wanton destruction of the remaining exhibits. By 1924 there was little left of the museum and the collection had been completely sold.