World Rugby Museum

Since the birth of the Rugby Football Union in 1871, a large range of artefacts has been collected including minute books, match programmes, tickets and gifts from other rugby unions.

Twickenham rugby ground
Credit: User unknown/public domain

The collection of over 25,000 objects are displayed within permanent galleries and supplement a regular programme of special exhibitions as well as formal and informal learning programmes.

Over the course of a century, the collection built up to such a level that in 1972 the RFU had the idea of opening a museum.

The first location to be considered was 180 Whitton Road, one of the RFU-owned houses behind the South Stand at Twickenham. This museum never came into being and the house became an archive store. The first time that any part of the collection was revealed to the public was in the old West Stand.

From around 1979 to 1983, cabinets displayed some of the most famous trophies and items of interest. In 1983 it was decided to open the first purpose-built museum, which was housed in the then newly built South Stand. By the 1990s, with the planned redevelopment of the East Stand, it was decided that there should be some space reserved there for a new museum.

The World Rugby Museum was opened on 16 March 1996.

Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence

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Sylvia guiver Blandford Square, NW1 Added: 4 Jul 2024 14:52 GMT	Grandparents 1937 lived 37 Blandford Square Y mother and all her sisters and brother lived there, before this date , my parent wedding photographers were take in the square, I use to visit with my mother I remember the barge ballon in the square in the war. Reply
Roy Mathieson Southwark Added: 27 Jun 2024 16:25 GMT	St Saviours My great grandmother was born in Bowling Green Lane in 1848. The family moved from there to Earl Terrace, Bermondsey in 1849. I have never been able to locate Earl Terrace on maps. Reply
Buckhurst Street, E1 Added: 26 Jun 2024 13:10 GMT	Buckhurst Street, E1 Mt grandfather, Thomas Walton Ward had a musical instrument workshop in Buckhurst Street from 1934 until the street was bombed during the war. Grandfather was a partner in the musical instrument firm of R.J. Ward and Sons of Liverpool. He died in 1945 and is buried in a common grave at Abney Park Cemetery. Reply
Mike Dowling Undercliff Road, SE13 Added: 15 Jun 2024 15:51 GMT	Family ties (1936 - 1963) The Dowling family lived at number 13 Undercliffe Road for Nearly 26 years. Next door was the Harris family Reply
Evie Helen Erith Added: 13 Jun 2024 00:03 GMT	Vickers Road The road ’Vickers Road’ is numbered rather differently to other roads in the area as it was originally built as housing for the "Vickers" arms factory in the late 1800’s and early 1900s. Most of the houses still retain the original 19th century tiling and drainage outside of the front doors. Reply
Paul Harris Ellen Place, E1 Added: 12 Jun 2024 12:54 GMT	Ellen Place, E1 My mother’s father and his family lived at 31 Ellen Place London E1 have a copy of the 1911 census showing this Reply
Wedlake Street, W10 Added: 10 Jun 2024 19:31 GMT	Toll gate Close Did anyone live at Toll Gate Close, which was built in the area where the baths had been? Reply
Charles Black Middle Row, W10 Added: 24 May 2024 12:54 GMT	Middle Row, W10 Middle Row was notable for its bus garage, home of the number 7. Reply