Museum Gardens ban was ‘a mistake’

9:50am Wednesday 23rd July 2008

Comments (6)   Have your say »

MUSEUM bosses have insisted that some of York’s best loved gardens are open to visitors of all ages after security guards wrongly barred entry to teenagers.

The York Museums Trust, which runs the Yorkshire Museum and Gardens, said youngsters were briefly banned from the Museum Gardens after graffiti was discovered, but the guards had not been given permission to take such action.

A spokesman said that action had been taken to ensure such a ban was not enforced again.

The trust’s comments came after a woman contacted The Press to complain about the ban, which she witnessed on the afternoon of Saturday, July 12.

She said she saw guards turning away any young people trying to enter the gardens from Museum Street unless they were accompanied by an adult.

She said that those banned were not smoking or carrying drink, and it appeared that a new discriminatory policy was in place against young people.

The trust spokesman said security guards in Museum Gardens had prevented unaccompanied teenagers going into the garden for about half an hour on that day after a spate of graffiti had been discovered.

“This was not an instruction from the museum and was stopped as soon as the manager on duty became became aware of the situation,” he said.

“York Museums Trust has spoken to the security firm to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

He stressed: “The Museum Gardens are open to all, no matter how old they are, and this remains the case.”

The Press has reported previously how the gardens have suffered from graffiti problems.

Last year, the gardens, along with public building elsewhere in the city, were blighted by graffiti tags which were costing up to £1,000 a week to remove.

Earlier this month, we reported how a replica masterpiece on display at the Hospitium in the gardens, the Arnolfini Portrait, by Jan van Eyck, had been taken.

The painting was one of 49 full life-size recreations of paintings from the National Gallery and York Art Gallery which have been hung at prominent points around the city to transform it into a free, al fresco gallery for the summer.