Tuesday 18 to Friday 21 November and Wednesday 26 to Friday 28 November 2025 - The Huntley & Palmer Gallery will be closed for essential maintenance works, we apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Please note that the gallery will be open on Saturday 22 November and Tuesday 25 November.
This popular gallery tells the story of Huntley & Palmers, Reading's world famous biscuit makers. Discover how Huntley & Palmers pioneered the mass production of biscuits and why Reading became known as the 'Biscuit Town'.
You can see and hear what factory life was like for Huntley & Palmers' thousands of workers, through oral history, photographs and historic film, including the earliest surviving film of a British factory.
Gallery highlights
- Almost 300 decorative biscuit tins as well as advertising and artefacts
- An African thumb piano made from a recycled H&P biscuit tin
- A biscuit supplied to Captain Scott's ill-fated Antarctic expedition
- The rude ‘Kate Greenaway’ biscuit tin that embarrassed the biscuit company!
Explore online
- Explore our History of Huntley & Palmers online exhibition
- Browse hundreds of Huntley & Palmers tins and objects on Reading Museum's Online Collections
- Discover a selection of ornate biscuit tins in 3D on Reading Museum's Sketchfab
Lovely Museum. Memories of Huntley & Palmers biscuits.
- Reading Museum visitor
Children looking at Huntley & Palmers biscuit tins
