The Sidney Sime Gallery

The Sidney Sime Gallery at Worplesdon, near Guildford in Surrey, houses a major collection of the fascinating and highly characteristic work of Sidney Sime (1865-1941), the famous artist, illustrator and caricaturist.

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Sidney Herbert Sime		Sime owned a cottage at Worplesdon - Crown Cottage - and spent much of his time there during the latter part of his life. The gallery is on the first floor of Worplesdon Memorial Hall and was opened in 1956 with proceeds from the sale of Crown Cottage, on the death of Sime's widow Mary.  Mary bequeathed all those of her late husband's pictures that remained in her possession to the Trustees of the Worplesdon Memorial Hall for the creation of such a gallery.
The Trustees continue to make improvements to the Gallery, the most recent of which (2013) has been a complete, and extremely successful, renewal of the lighting system.  This was made possible by a grant from Surrey County Council and Guildford Borough Council through the Surrey Community Buildings Grant Scheme - support which is very gratefully acknowledged.

Paintings and drawings

There are 88 hung works on view, including theatrical caricatures, caricatures of local Worplesdon residents and landscape paintings in oil and watercolour.  In total there are over 500 catalogued items.  The Trustees pursue a continuing programme of restoration and conservation, for which they seek to attract donations and grants.

To view a selection of our pictures online, go to our online gallery page.  The oil paintings in our collection can be viewed in their entirety through the Art UK website.

Furniture

The gallery also contains some furniture used frequently by Sime:  a gate-leg table, which contains two portfolios of Sime's work and also various publications of interest;  a Windsor chair;  and a tallboy containing his original sketch books, numerous oil paintings, etchings, watercolour sketches, drawings and caricatures, and press cuttings.

Worplesdon Memorial Trustees

The Memorial Hall and the contents of the Sidney Sime Gallery are in the care of the Worplesdon Memorial Trustees, a registered charity.  More details can be found on the Worplesdon Memorial Hall website.