Poole Museum: Maritime Museum and Cultural Centre in Dorset
Site at a Glance
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Modern
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Modern
- Civilizations
- British
- Site type
- Economic
- Remains
- Warehouse
On this page10 sections
History
Poole Museum is a maritime museum, gallery and cultural centre in Poole, Dorset, United Kingdom. It opened in 1989 in a nineteenth-century harbour warehouse and was formerly known as the Waterfront Museum.
A major refurbishment took place in 2005, and the museum reopened in July 2007. It closed for further renovation in December 2022 and reopened in November 2025. The redevelopment restored the three historic buildings and added three maritime galleries.
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council owns the museum. The Poole Museum Service also manages Scaplen’s Court Museum and Garden, next to the museum.
Remains
The museum occupies a nineteenth-century harbour warehouse in the Lower High Street area of Poole’s Old Town. Its complex comprises three historic buildings, and an attached Local History Centre occupies medieval town cellars.
Historic buildings and additions
Harbour warehouse and complex
The nineteenth-century warehouse forms the setting for the museum, which occupies a complex of three historic buildings. The buildings were restored during the redevelopment that preceded the museum’s 2025 reopening.
Medieval town cellars
The attached Local History Centre is housed in medieval town cellars. The cellars are Grade I listed, England’s highest category for buildings of exceptional architectural or historic interest.
Entrance and visitor spaces
The 2007 refurbishment added a glass atrium entrance, a terrace and a visitor lounge. The atrium was designed by Richard Horden of Horden Cherry Lee Architects.
Maritime collections and other features
Poole Logboat
The Poole Logboat is an Iron Age vessel about 2,000 years old. In Britain, the Iron Age refers generally to the centuries before the Roman conquest, when iron came into widespread use. The boat was found during dredging in Poole Harbour in 1964 and is the museum’s centrepiece. In May 2023, it was moved into safe storage.
Mortar Wreck
A maritime gallery focuses on the preserved Mortar Wreck, a shipwreck from the thirteenth century, and the artefacts the vessel carried when it sank.
Bethan’s Rock and the wooden hippopotamus
Bethan’s Rock is a stone donated to the museum in 2019 by a five-year-old child who had learned about museums and their role in preserving objects. The museum also features a wooden hippopotamus sculpture by Peter Hand. Introduced in 1969 for children to play on, it was previously at the Dolphin Centre before becoming part of the museum.
