VISITORS will be charged to go into Southampton's Tudor House for the first time when it re-opens later this summer.

Adults will be charged £4.75, children £3 and over-60s £3.75. Under-sevens will be free.

The city's most important historical building has been open to the public as a free museum for nearly a century.

The 16th century Tudor House will reopen to the public in August after a multi-million pound restoration and redevelopment.

But ahead of a decision to offload the running of the museum to a private firm, the Tory run council is bringing in admission fees for the estimated 45,000 visitors a year it will receive.

Labour heritage spokesman, Cllr Derek Burke, described the decision as a scandal.

He said: “All it will do is deter people from going when everyone is still feeling the pinch. What family could afford to go in there?

“It’s a scandal that after all this taxpayer money spent on the museum, the public could be denied access.”

Council heritage and finance boss councillor, John Hannides, said: “What we are looking at now is to avoid having to make substantial additional levels of subsidy to the running of the museum and so charging has been introduced. This is something which has been negotiated along with the Heritage lottery board [which awarded millions in grants].”

The council says visitors to the museum with be greeted with an “exciting introducing audio-visual show” and get free audio tours regaling stories from Georgian and Victorian times.

Panels in each room will display “stunning images” which change as visitors pass them and interactive exhibits will allow visitors to explore the rooms in more historical detail. New artefacts will also be put on display for the first time.

The Daily Echo revealed earlier this year how the council is selling the management of its internationally- renowned art gallery, Tudor House museum, and the £15m Sea City museum being built to host a Titanic exhibition to mark the 100th anniversary of the tragedy.

The council is considering offers from firms for the £26m contracts which will be awarded in the autumn, running for up to 20 years.

The deals are aimed to protect the taxpayer from subsidising the attractions, but there are fears that privatisation is not the best way to safeguard the city’s, largely hidden, £180m art collection.