Museum of London launches £18 million development
17 May 2006
Professor Jack Lohman, Director of the Museum of London, unveiled plans today for an £18 million development of the Museum, the biggest since the Museum opened in 1976, due to be completed in 2009.
The project reflects the growth in visitors to the Museum, which have increased from 269,000 in 1995 to 450,000 in 2005, and will revitalise the Museum for the future. Expanded galleries and a new learning centre by Wilkinson Eyre Architects will double the number of objects on display by creating 25 percent more exhibition space.
Visitors will find world class galleries telling the stories of London from the Great Fire in 1666 to the present day, state of the art learning spaces, a new information zone and café. A glass fronted gallery overlooking London Wall will provide a spectacular setting for the Lord Mayor’s Coach, one of the great icons of the Museum.
The Museum of London is the largest urban history museum in the world and its collections are as quirky, vast and varied as London itself. Designed by Powell & Moya, it was opened on 2 December 1976 by Her Majesty the Queen as London’s first new post-war museum. There are over two million items in the collections including art, archaeology, photography, social and working history, life stories, and film.
The Museum is part of a wider group, which includes the Museum in Docklands, Museum of London Archaeology Service and the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre, and employs leading experts on all aspects of London’s archaeology and history.
Among the highlights of the collection are the red and gold Lord Mayor’s Coach, which is drawn by six horses in the Lord Mayor’s procession every November, Cromwell’s death mask, Nelson’s sword, the celebrated diorama of the Fire of London and the Plague Bell, which was rung in the streets of London to announce the collection of the dead. Modern assets include the Festival of Britain collection, 37 outfits given to the Museum by fashion designer Mary Quant and an original Ford Cortina dating from the 1960s.
The new development has been generously supported by an £11.5 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund with additional support from The Clore Duffield Foundation, Hugh and Catherine Stevenson, Fidelity UK Foundation, London Development Agency, the Rayne Foundation and BT, with a total of £14 million already raised. Further funds will be raised from the proceeds of a major public appeal.
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