The Arc Winchester

Ravilious exhibition was wonderful and fed my soul. A small show in a pleasant modern library-cum-gallery with a cafe built into the old corn exchange. The show finishes on 15th May 2022 and is very popular. I went on Friday 6th at 11.10am and it was a little too crowded. Sadly the catalogue has sold out and there just a few postcards available, prints and ceramic designs, only a submarine watercolour. Staff were good, approachable and helpful.

Nice shiny new community space to chill out and work, for most of the time. Seems someone forgot to add soft door closers on the staff doors where people are reading and working - loud slams every few minutes… er, this is a library right?? 🤷🏼‍♂️

Not much point coming here if you want to use it as a library - study or read quietly. Really quite noisy with kids running around, and live performances at the entrance???? ( that you can hear when you're trying to study ). I don't really see the benefit of all this renovation if you cant even use the building for what it is for.

What a great venue for comedy or small theatre!

Really well run by helpful, happy staff.

Easy free evening parking at Tower Street car park 3 minutes walk away.

Winchester's local library is fully stocked with great books, and it has a wide open area for all subjects that are easy to find. However, it's not without its problems.

The main thing that puts plenty of people off of this place is the fact that the staff members seem to forget that it's meant to be a library. Kids run around and scream like they're at the local park, and the staff never seem to care that people can't focus on their work, and as such, it's hard to want to make use of the facilities when people can't remember a basic protocol of how to act in a "quiet study space."
Please, Arc staff members, try to give some stricter notice to people in the Library that we came here to do work and read without being disturbed. There are no other places in the city where we can go to expect such policies to be enforced.

Really enjoyed our visit to the Arc, to see the amazing Pete Firman, great little venue, 👍

A great cuppa and served by a lovely lady called Dawn ! Awesome place x

Lovely, intimate venue with great acoustics. Very good staff