The newly refurbished Dimbola Tearoom is reopening on Saturday July 11th.
This will initially be a takeaway service only, from our new range of freshly cooked food, locally sourced produce and freshly brewed tea and coffee. New Tearoom Manager Jenny Kent has overseen a complete redesign; the tearoom now has been redecorated with William Morris wallpapers, and the tea gardens in front of the house now are extended with stunning views of Freshwater Bay and the English Channel beyond.
Everything has been redesigned under current Covid-19 government regulations, and we kindly request that customers carefully dispose of our new recyclable packaging responsibly. Public toilets are available, down towards the Bay.
The tearoom will be open from 8am, serving breakfast, snacks, morning coffee, cooked lunches and afternoon teas, every day of the week until 5pm.
This is the first opportunity for visitors to see the extensive restoration of the outside of Dimbola, through a private sponsor and local builders Homewatch, which has taken the house to what it looked like in the heyday of Julia Margaret Cameron.
On Tuesday September 1st the museum itself will reopen, with a new circular one-way route around the house, advance online and telephone booking, visitor signposting, more frequent cleaning and antibacterial hand sanitiser stations.
We are very pleased to announce that The Wight Book exhibition, in which a range of top photographers celebrate the quirkiness, beauty and personalities of the Island will now continue until late September. We thought that this stunning celebration of the Island would be a very positive note on which to reopen.
The museum and shop will then be open, Tuesdays to Sundays 10am until 5pm for the rest of the summer season.
Exhibitions planned for our lockdown period on the links between Dimbola and South East Asia, and a major Jimi Hendrix summer show, have been postponed until 2021. We have also completely rehung our celebration of the Solo IW Festivals.
From August 4th, the Dimbola Tearoom itself will reopen for seating inside and our toilet facilities will be available as usual.
We are delighted to welcome back long standing customers, new visitors, supporters and Friends and just ask you for a little patience before the museum itself is fully ready to reopen, with our staff coming back from furlough. We have to get used to this new way of operating so once we’re open again, please bear with us while we find our feet!
Dr Brian Hinton MBE, Chairman