THE WORLD renowned Stanley Spencer Gallery is still scheduled to open next month after £900,000 was spent on bringing it into the 21st century.

The gallery, which attracts on average 14,000 people a year to the area, plans to open on September 1 after being closed for a year.

The official opening of the gallery, which was first opened in 1962, is on September 29, but the opening date is still not 100 per cent certain.

This is because they can not bring the pictures, which are currently being stored at Reading Museum, back into the gallery until the conditions such as lighting and humidity are correct.

However they hope to start hanging the pictures back up on August 23, when the BBC's Today programme will be filming at the gallery.

Money from a Heritage Lottery Fund grant and other money raised has paid for the changes to the Kings Hall, which include two new exhibitions.

Stanley Spencer was born at Fernlea, in Cookham High Street, on June 30, 1891, and was knighted shortly before his death at the Canadian War Memorial Hospital in Cliveden in 1959.

He spent most of his life in the area and the gallery is unique in that it is devoted to one artist who had lived and worked in the village of his birth.

Chrissy Rosenthal, press officer for the gallery, said: "The landscape and people of Cookham were the inspiration for many of Spencer's works and the gallery plays an important role in the village. It now has an exciting future.

"Spencer represented a way of life that is rapidly disappearing and the importance of this gallery in the future cannot be underestimated."

The gallery is run by volunteers and is self-supporting. It raises its money through admission charges and sales of prints, postcards and books.

The building was built in 1846 and was formally Wesleyan Chapel, which the artist visited as a child with his mother.

There are more than 120 oil paintings and drawings at the gallery, as well as the artist's recorded memories, letters and pictures.

There is also a number of press cuttings, a well worn Bible and the pram that he used to push his equipment around on.

Mrs Rosenthal added: "The building is a very small space and it was important to the Trustees of the gallery that the integrity of the building was maintained.

"It needed to be brought up to 21st century standards not only to accommodate the wonderful collection of paintings and drawings, but to become compliant with access regulations for all visitors."

She also wanted to emphasis that the gallery hopes to encourage more people who walk past it each day to come and visit.

Admission is £3 but students and senior citizens only have to pay £2, with children and friends of the gallery for free.

Anyone who wishes to visit the gallery is advised to check if it is open.

You can go to www. cookham.com/abo ut/spencer or call 01628 471885.