Current facilities at the Museum
To ensure the Museum remains a world leader and a
vital international resource, it must take the opprtunity to
modernise
its facilities.
The proposed site
The area proposed for the new World Conservation and Exhibitions
Centre is currently taken up with poor quality temporary buildings,
which are not visible to visitors to the Museum.
By removing these buildings and replacing them with the new
Centre, the Museum can continue to develop and enhance its work as
a world leader and vital local, national and international
resource.
Current exhibitions spaces
In recent years the British Museum has held a series of
extremely popular major exhibitions.
These are currently displayed in the Reading
Room. However, this space is not ideal. Lack of good transport
access and limited doorway sizes mean it is difficult to move
objects into and out of this space.
The new Centre, with a dedicated exhibition space, would allow
the display of large international exhibitions which the Museum has
previously been unable to accommodate.
Conservation and scientific research
facilities
Currently much of our conservation work is carried out in
unsuitable domestic properties on the site. The layout of the
facilities, and lack of natural light, presents significant
challenges to our experts, and many of the rooms are too small.
The facilities are currently dispersed across
the Museum, as well as off-site, and highly important and sensitive
objects often have to be transported in less than ideal
conditions.
The new Centre will provide state of the art conservation
and science facilities that will support the work of our world
class experts and staff.
Developing the solution
To guide its development over the next 10 to
15 years, the Museum undertook a masterplanning exercise between
2004 and 2006.
The masterplan identified the World
Conservation and Exhibitions Centre as the most important
project. It will provide:
- A dedicated gallery for special
exhibitions
- State of the art conservation and science
facilities
- A collections’ management hub
- World-class stores for the study
collection
It also identified the north-west corner of
the site as the only area capable of locating these facilities.