Cartoon Museum Re-Opens in London

For our undergraduate students, one of the great advantages of  studying at Bucks New University is our proximity to London, with its wealth of cultural events and experiences.

London's Cartoon Museum, which closed last year when rising rents forced it out of its former home in Little Russell St, is back - and better than ever.

Last week the Cartoon Museum re-opened at its new home at 63 Wells St in Fitzrovia, a roomy basement space dedicated to the history of British cartooning.

New Home in Fiztrovia

The new Fitzrovia permanent exhibition was curated by The Guardian's Steve Bell, and the new collection was introduced by cartoon enthusiast and former education secretary Kenneth Baker, who explained that cartooning is one of the few art forms that can be claimed to be a very British invention - as the first country to end censorship in the 18th Century, political satire was born, alongside a free press.

Gillray: caricature of the Prince of Wales (1794)

Cartoon Museum
The Cartoon Museum is a London museum located at 63 Wells St, Fitzrovia, dedicated to the art of cartoons, caricatures, comic strips and animation. It is owned and operated by the Cartoon Art Trust, who also host the annual Cartoon Art Trust Awards.

The museum has a collection of over 1,700 original cartoons and prints, ranging from James Gillray and William Hogarth in the 18th Century to the Beano, Viz and Spitting Image.

The original Cartoon Museum, co-founded by cartoonist Oliver Preston, was opened on 23 February 2006, by The Duke of Edinburgh.

Cartoon Museum Mission
The museum's mission is to "preserve the best of British cartoons, caricatures, comics and animation, and to establish a museum with a gallery, archives and innovative exhibitions to make the creativity of cartoon art past and present, accessible to all for the purposes of education, research and enjoyment."

Below is a short video by Private Eye Editor Ian Hislop.



For more on the experience of studying at Bucks New University, come and visit us at one of our Open Days, take a virtual tour of one of our animation studios, check out what our students think of our course, and see why we're ranked in the top 12 creative universities in the UK.