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I was surprised to discover upon investigation today, that despite playing host to museums for items as diverse as dog collars and prams, the UK has absolutely no charity/museum established for the history of wargaming in the UK. Considering how far the subject goes back, the widespread nature of it as a hobby, and the number of businesses dedicated to it, I would have thought there'd be a dozen or so, but I can't seem to find anything.

Have I missed something? If so, I'd appreciate it if someone could pipe up now, because if not, I might be grabbing a few historically minded friends who work in the heritage sector/wargame, and start investigating HLF grants and the like.

There's this:
http://www.soldiersinsilloth.co.uk/
It was shut when we went a couple of years ago, so did not get to go around it.

See what happened to this:
https://blog.royalarmouries.org/2015/10/02/agincourt-600-making-the-agincourt-diorama-an-introduction/

I've seen the Agincourt display before, the soldiersinsilloth one is new to me. Seems to be more toy soldier diorama focused as opposed to wargaming, but still very interesting to see! Thanks!

Didn't an original Citadel model-maker's collection get pasted up the other month? One of those Interviews with a Celeb threads. I think that had something in it about long-term display.

Personal collections, and history:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/499039.page

Wargames Foundry have a sort of gaming museum / collection, but it's Foundry specific.

Closest you'll get to that (I think) is probably the museum section of Warhammer World (because, to be fair, it's the biggest influence).

A generic museum could be pretty interesting, but also pretty niche unless you could link it in with board games / RPGs and a gaming venue.

Interesting idea.

I don't know how UK law works but I wonder if it might be a way to make a 'non-profit' game shop. Have a museum and some educational programs and an attached gaming area.

I guess you could run the museum as a NPO/Charity, and have an attached shop and gaming area, in the same way that most museums have a gift shop and cafe. You might even be able to gift-aid the sales.

I'm not sure if you'd need to do anything to avoid the accusations that the museum is just a front for a store though to dodge tax.

It's an interesting idea, certainly (and one that hadn't actually occurred before you gents mentioned it). I work with a lot of people in the heritage sector, and a consistent worry amongst them is fund raising. Practically every museum has a shop and café attached for that reason, and many many charities stock storefronts with mass produced goods to raise money (Oxfam, for example).

A store would be a good way to help lessen dependency upon donations, and the tax breaks involved in being a charity would give you a slight edge commercially, sufficient at the least to help maintain the museum. The wage bill would be less as well, considering most museums run on volunteers.

Make no mistake though, my primary interest is in the preservation of the models, artworks, and company history around miniature wargaming.

It occurs that if one was willing to expand the scope of the institute into more general wargaming, it would enable fundraising and sales from computer games and military-related companies and institutes also. The risk then however, would be dilutions and of taking on too much in one go. The logical thing to do would be to get established in a sufficiently large property and then expand the remit of the museum subsequently.

Nottingham would be the place to do it...

I've arranged a meeting with three other wargamers/friends who I know work in the museum sector next week to have a pint and a chat about it. I know at least one of them is looking for a project, and we've all a fairly complementary batch of skillsets, so I'll put something together and see where the idea goes...

Very interesting. While I would almost never make it to the UK to see a wargaming museum/exhibit I would be very happy to know it existed. There is a lot of artistic merit in the way boards, scenery, and models are made/painted but also in the artistry involved in the crafting of the actual games and their history.

As offensive as it is you should try to get a hold of an actual copy of Little Wars by HG Wells to stick in a case as a part of the history of the hobby.

Is there merit to having some sort of mobile exhibit that means you can set it up in a few museums around the country before settling down somewhere?

For instance, I know there's a Lego one coming our way over the summer. I've no idea what the logistics would be like, but it might give you a bit more initial coverage.

We have the Lego one here in at the moment. It's worth a quick visit, if it is near you.

A mobile wargaming exhibition might be difficult to move around, but there are ways of doing it.
Lego has a reputation of being easy to put back together.
But, if GW and others have a spare item or two, it might be enough to kick things off.