Rotunda Museum

A leisurely stroll around the South Bay area of Scarborough brings you to the visual delights of the Rotunda Museum, set against the South Bay and Cliff Bridge, which can be explored in another post.

The building presents a photographic opportunity, with pleasing curves and a soft, sandstone ashlar appearance. It was a purpose-built museum that opened in 1829, at the end of the Georgian period (1714 to 1837).

From Scarborough's Museum and Galleries Collections Development Policy 2018-2023, we have a nice bit of background into the nature of the people behind the collections:

The 'Godfather of Geology' William 'Strata' Smith (1769 to 1839) suggested the singular circular building to the Scarborough Philosophical Society to show the exhibits off to their best advantage. He had seen such a museum in London, and instructed the architect Richard Hey Sharp of York to follow this design.

A Patron of Smith, Sir John Johnstone, donated the Hackness stone to create the building. The Philosophical Society raised the rest of the capital required. We have more about Mr Smith as we go along.

The rotunda is two stories of ashlar sandstone, with the lower level using more rusticated blocks. The wings were added in 1860. There are no windows on the first floor because of the displays in that room, as you will see later.

It was great to spot a fixed sundial on the terrace, you can see it above the railings in the centre of the photo below.

I bounded up the terrace steps and read the Greenwich Mean Time. The motto in English reads 'Mind Your Business', which is considered a witty or moralistic view. It seems to resonate with the museum's ethos to engage with knowledge, focus on learning, and observe nature.

The entrance to the museum was built circa 2006-2008 when the museum underwent a renovation. The existing domed roof was recovered with lead. All in keeping with the original building.

The centre spiral staircase inside was removed (it is stored somewhere) and a lift was installed. The walls around it have a modern geological touch.

Our first encounter was William 'Strata' Smith's astonishing masterwork, the first geological map of England, Wales, and parts of Scotland. The coastline of Yorkshire has an abundance of geological interest.

This map and others he made were invaluable to agriculture and mining fraternities. Smith's work is still influential today.

There is an installation, which pays homage to it in Durham City, It is called What Lies Beneath Us.

William Smith formulated two laws:

The Law of Superposition, which was first proposed by Danish scientist Niels Steensen (1638 to 1686), when it was believed that fossils grew in the ground.

The other is the Law of Faunal Succession.

Here is a Megalosaurus below.

There is also an Itchysoreass and I can now remember the name! How do I know, well, in one of the drawers that you are invited to look in, there is a finely drawn picture dated 1834 by Thomas Hawkins (1810 to 1889) called 'Memoirs of Ichthyossuri and Plesiosauri' from a book what he wrote. He drew this from his collection of fossils and believed that they could be pre-Adamic beings.

For young and old fossil finders, this should inspire many to go hunting, as there are many specimens here from Yorkshire's dinosaur coast.

The second floor has no windows as there are bespoke-made wall-to-wall cabinets that date back to 1850. The cabinets have elegant legs and thin bars of veneered Mahogany for the glass. If, like me, you struggle to read smaller printed material, it is made worse here by the Georgian glass that distorts the writing. I should have brought my glasses!

There is an eclectic mix of artifacts, and there should be something to pique your interest.

The original stairs have been removed and a lift installed. I tried to capture the wonderful dome ocular. In doing so, I created a nice Dr Who Tardis impression.

A frieze of geological strata runs around below the cornice, which was created by the nephew of Mr Smith, John Philips.

The library ladder is propelled around by winding a handle affixed to a bar on the platform that you stand on. The handle is attached by a vertical rod to the cogs on the axle of the wheels. Advisably, not to be used by the public. The spiral stairs were also out of bounds.

The west wing was closed on our visit due to water ingress, and we did not see Britain's best-preserved Early Bronze Age skeleton, 'The Gristhorpe Man'.

Just to note, it is also labelled as Rotunda Museum, Museum of Geology and Coastal Heritage and you may also find it is called Rotunda, The William Smith Museum of Geology. Rotunda Museum, Scarborough, gets you there no less.

We thought it was a grand little museum and it is a yearly £5 entrance (August 2025), which also includes the Art Gallery in Crescent Gardens.

Next was a coffee at a nearby bistro and a saunter over and under the Cliff Bridge.