Three years since Swindon Museum & Art Gallery closed its doors in Apsley House at the start of the Covid-19 restrictions were ‘celebrated’ by at-lovers on Friday.

Members of the Friends group, and those who used to visit regularly gathered at the front of the closed Regency building on the corner of Victoria Road and Bath Road in Old Town with cake and banners to try and maintain the pressure on Swindon Borough Council to get a new exhibition space in the civic offices in Euclid Street opened.

Flanked by a campaigner in a crocodile suit - symbolising the famous stuffed gharial ‘Apsley’ which was such a popular feature when the museum was open, chairman of the Friends association Linda Kasmaty said: “It’s good to see so many people here, although it’s a sad occasion really.

“It’s three years since Swindon has had a museum and art gallery. It’s three years since anyone has been able to see the fantastic collections the town has. Children will not have been able to visit.”

Ms Kasmaty said the Friends were supportive of the council’s plan to open the upper floor of the civic offices as a new gallery and museum – but she was bemused at what was taking so long.

She said: ”The cabinet member Matty Courtliff keeps us informed – but there’s been nothing to say. But in November the council leader said he hoped work would begin before Christmas and that the new space would be open by this Spring.

“Clearly that’s not going to happen now. I just hope that we are not back here in a year’s time.”

The council’s cabinet member for heritage and leisure and the town centre Matty Courtliff admitted that timescales have slipped.

He said: “It has slipped back, mainly because of the increased costs of building materials. But the contract for the work to put in the lift has been sorted - we are just dotting the I’s on that and the tender for the main building work is out.

“I’m still confident that work will be starting this year.”

The museum and gallery in Apsley House closed at the start of the 2020 lockdowns and has not reopened.

The council said the Grade II-listed building was not suitable – it has very poor access for people with disabilities and the council said it needed too much spent on it in repairs for a building which is not fit for purpose.

The exhibition spaces in the civic offices are a ‘temporary’ solution for up to 10 years while a new gallery is built as part of the council’s regeneration of the Kimmerfields area of the town centre.