ANGRY art enthusiasts stormed the William Morris Gallery to show how much they wanted to visit during the week.

Carrying placards calling for the world-renowned gallery in Lloyd Park, Forest Road, Walthamstow, to remain open all week and curatorial jobs to be saved, more than 150 visitors arrived on Tuesday morning.

Chairman of The Friends of William Morris Gallery Martin Stuchfield told the crowd that millions in Lottery bid money was being risked by the cuts as a slimmed-down service would not attract money the gallery needed.

He also talked about curatorial jobs at the gallery and Vestry House Museum in Vestry Road, Walthamstow, being downsized.

Many of the visitors carried placards complaining about the cut in staff hours the changes will bring. Captions like "Sack the Expensive Poor-performing Head of Service" jostled with "Save Our Specialist Museum Staff" and "More Curators, Less Managers".

Dr Julian Litten, of St Barnabas Vicarage, St Barnabas Road, Walthamstow, has been a senior curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum for 32 years.

He said: "The William Morris Gallery's collection is on a par with any of the national museums in Europe. Its collection is of paramount importance. People come from all over the world."

Dr Litten also said that the council had a legal obligation to allow the public access to ecclesiastical records, including births, deaths and marriages, which are held in Vestry House Museum.

And he claimed it would cost the borough more money to provide the right environmental conditions elsewhere than it is planning to save from these cuts.

Cabinet member for leisure, arts and culture Cllr Naz Sarkar spoke at the meeting, but the fired-up protestors heckled him, and many were disappointed he didn't have any new information.

Richard Carleton, 70, of Nesta Road, said he asked Cllr Sarkar to explain why the museum and gallery are losing 16 per cent if the budget cut, on average, is four per cent on average, but he did not get an answer.

CABINET member for leisure, arts and culture Cllr Naz Sarkar said after the meeting that people at the gallery were prepared to listen to both sides of the story.

"I think people respected me for turning up. I spent about an hour and a half outside talking to people too, outside the bear pit of the debating hall."

But Cllr Sarkar agreed that he had nothing new to offer.

"The arguments remain the same. We are trying to make the museums more accessible to the public towards the end of the week," he said, adding that the changes would allow more school groups to have special visits to the venues.

"I'm fairly sure that this will result in bigger visitor numbers."