Derbyshire County Council say £435,000 from Buxton Museum sale will be ‘reinvested in services’

The auction for Peak Buildings took place on Thursday January, 30 and the lot had 13 viewers and 29 legal pack downloads prior to the sale.

Buxton Museum and Art Gallery has been housed in Peak Buildings for nearly 100 years.

In 1928, the first floor was opened as the town’s public library with the ground floor occupied by the museum.

The Buxton Magistrates Court was also based out of Peak Buildings and shut in 2016 and the Green Man Gallery closed at Christmas.

The museum was temporarily closed in June 2023 after dry rot was discovered in the building and, almost a year later, Derbyshire County Council announced the museum would not be reopening and would be put up for sale.

A Derbyshire County Council spokesperson said: “Now Peak Buildings is sold our museum staff will be finishing what has been extremely time-consuming and complex work to carefully remove the remainder of the collections into safe storage before handing the building to its new owners.

“They will also be working on setting up temporary displays at Buxton Library.

“We are satisfied with the amount raised for the building at auction and contracts have already been exchanged, with completion expected in early March.

“The capital raised will be reinvested in our services.

“It is a new chapter for Peak Buildings and we will watch with interest what new use is generated for it.

“We have previously said that it would be far better for Peak Buildings and the town if the building was sold to a buyer who could invest in it and bring it back up to a high standard.

“This was out of our reach as a local authority given the financial challenges we continue to face.

“We’re pleased to say that we are making positive progress on identifying a new permanent home for the museum and we hope to be able to give an update on this shortly.”