South Mill Arts

'The original part of the main building on South Road is the birthplace of Cecil Rhodes, financier, entrepreneur and founder of the De Beers diamond company. Rhodes was born in 1853 and spent some of his early childhood in Bishop’s Stortford, but suffered from poor health in his teenage years and his family decided to send him to Natal in South Africa, where they thought the hot, dry climate would help him ... In 1938 the Rhodes Memorial Museum was created ... In 1963, The Commonwealth Centre, a community arts venue was built adjacent to the Museum. The Bishop’s Stortford Local History Museum, run by the Local History Society, opened in 1979 at Cemetry Lodge, Apton Road ... In 2002, both Museums and the Commonwealth Centre closed and following the result of a successful Heritage Lottery bid for £1.3 m, a modern and interactive Museum was created incorporating the collections from the Rhodes Memorial Museum and those of the Bishop’s Stortford History Museum ... Today, Rhodes is a vibrant entertainment venue with a refurbished auditorium, new conference rooms, a dance studio and a cafe/bar. It hosts a wide variety of shows, workshops, events and exhibitions.'