Cecil Higgins Art Gallery

The house was the Bedford home of the Higgins family from 1846-1910. The museum incorporates the Victorian Mansion - a set of real period rooms showing a late Victorian family at home. The settings include a family room, drawing room, guest's bedroom, nursery, and the Burgess Room, housing artefacts designed by prominent Victorian architect William Burgess.

A new addition to the house, added in 1976, houses an exceptional museum of fine drawings, ceramics, glass, lace, watercolours, and prints.

The Watercolour collection contains over 600 works of art, including some of the brightest names in British painting, including Gainsborough, Turner, and Constable. The Lace rooms contain examples of 19th century East Midlands style, point-ground, Honiton, and foreign lace.

The Ceramics collection covers English and European examples from the 16th to 20th centuries. There are over 1000 pieces of fine ceramics augmented by superb Glass from the 17th century to the present, including examples of Jacobite glassware and Art Noveau.