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National Museums at Chatham gets go ahead following £7m of grants from Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA)

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A ground breaking new museum project involving a partnership between the National Maritime Museum, the Imperial War Museum, the Science Museum and Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust, has received substantial support from Heritage Lottery Fund in the form of a £4.97m grant. This news comes hot on the heels after the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) pledged their support to the “National Museums at Chatham” project by way of a £2.0m grant. Total funding allocated to the project now stands at £9.2m.

National Museums at Chatham is located in Thames Gateway Kent. The aim of the powerful cultural partnership behind the project is to create a world-class museum resource that will deliver substantial access, learning, conservation and regeneration benefits regionally and nationally. The project is due to open to the public in 2010 and will unlock access by the public and by specialists to a wide range of internationally pre-eminent collections of museum artefacts. The project is actively supported by Medway Council, English Heritage and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

The project recovers for future generations the 19th Century No.1 Smithery building at The Historic Dockyard Chatham. Once described by English Heritage as the South East’s “most intractable building at risk”, the restoration of this building will largely complete the regeneration of the heart of The Historic Dockyard, which is also a potential World Heritage Site. The concept of National Museums at Chatham envisages the sensitive adaptation of this significant historic building. The facility will provide purpose-designed education amenities, a high quality gallery to attract temporary exhibitions and permanent galleries drawing on the museum partners’ world-renowned collections, including ship models, paintings and associated items. Specialised storage and research facilities will maximise the value of these collections which will become a truly dynamic resource from which objects will be accessible and available for loan both nationally and internationally.

Sheena Vick, Heritage Lottery Fund Regional Manager for the South East of England, said; “The Historic Dockyard Chatham is a vital chapter in the UK’s story as a maritime nation. The Heritage Lottery Fund is particularly supportive of this new vision for the Number 1 Smithery building the final piece in the Dockyard jigsaw, which once fully restored will play an integral role in Chatham’s heritage and economic regeneration”.

Total cost of National Museums at Chatham is estimated at £14million, £2.2m of which has previously been secured from the Department for Communities & Local Government (DCLG) (Thames Gateway) for emergency stabilisation of No. 1 Smithery, the building which will house the project. The remainder will be raised over the next few years. It is hoped that the announcement in April of this year that HRH The Prince of Wales has agreed to be patron will be of great benefit in future fund raising.

Admiral Sir Ian Garnett, Chairman, Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust, said “This news together with the fact that His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales is to be Patron of the National Museums at Chatham project is a great boost. Our partnership with the national museums is unique and HRH’s interest in the site and this building and project when he visited in November 2004 helped to inspire the team to bring it to this point. His continued support demonstrates the importance of all that The Trust does on behalf of Britain’s maritime heritage. I am certain that with hard work and determination, a truly remarkable museum will be developed and the remaining funds will now be raised to complete the project in good time to support London’s Olympics”.

The new complex will serve the growing population in Medway and the Thames Gateway and add value to the tourism offer in these areas. In addition to the learning centre and display facilities, more than 5,000 objects including ship and maritime models, together with associated material such as works of art will be re-located from their parent museums and either placed on permanent display or housed in modern, co-located, reserve storage. There will be ready access for public viewing, for scholarly research and long-term preservation and conservation. Items from this unprecedented assembly of museum treasures will also be available for loan to other museums and institutions nationally and internationally.

Robert Crawford says the Imperial War Museum is delighted with the approval of funding by HLF and SEEDA for this project. “We have worked very closely with our partners (The Historic Dockyard Chatham, National Maritime Museum and Science Museum) over several years to develop the National Museums at Chatham project. It will save a very significant building, greatly enhance access to important cultural resources for a large population and allow important parts of the Museum’s collections to be accessed by new audiences.

The project is an important, practical example of the innovative ways in which cultural institutions can work in partnerships to deliver major benefit to the broader community. We look forward to working with our partners in delivering this major new cultural facility for the Thames Gateway area”.

Roy Clare, Director, National Maritime Museum said; “The National Maritime Museum is delighted that this innovative partnership project to deliver national collections to regional audiences has been awarded a grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund and SEEDA. The new galleries and learning facilities will enable public access to important collections that are currently hidden from view. The project will play an important part in creating a cultural heart for Medway and The Thames Gateway region, and the future of a significant historic building can be assured. Access to collections is key to the ethos of all museums. Through this imaginative partnership, generations of visitors, users and researchers will be able to appreciate internationally significant collections of maritime models and related material for the first time. We look forward to working with our partners to deliver this exciting project in 2009/2010”.

Jon Tucker, Head of Science Museum said, “I am absolutely delighted at the news that HLF and SEEDA have decided to fund this joint initiative which is firmly on track to create a magnificent setting for what is a truly significant collection”.

Jonathan Sadler, SEEDA Project Director, Chatham Maritime, said: “We are delighted to support such a prestigious and culturally important project. The restoration of the Smithery building builds on what has already been achieved at Chatham Maritime and will provide cultural benefits not only to the people of Medway but also beyond in the rest of the Thames Gateway.”



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HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGES AVAILABLE ON REQUEST

For further PRESS information on the project, please contact Gail Louise James on 01634 823813 or email gjames@chdt.org.uk|

For SEEDA press enquiries, please contact Jayne Ramsbottom on 01634 899956, email jayneramsbottom@seeda.co.uk|

Notes to Editors:
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) enables communities to celebrate, look after and learn more about our diverse heritage. From our great museums and historic buildings to local parks and beauty spots or recording and celebrating traditions, customs and history, HLF grants open up our nation’s heritage for everyone to enjoy. HLF has supported more than 18,000 projects, allocating £3.5billion across the UK. Website: www.hlf.org.uk. For more information, please call Katie Owen or Sam Goody, HLF press office, on tel: 020 7591 6036/6033 or 07973 613820.

The Project
The three national museums each hold sizeable collections of internationally significant ship and other maritime models. The nature of the collections requires that they be housed in stable environmental conditions and protected from dust, pollutants and physical damage. The partners’ objective is that this shall be achieved through the application of sustainable design and adherence to the principles embodied in BS5454:2000, a standard that seeks to achieve stable conditions without extensive use of mechanical systems. The project will be carried out in 2 discrete elements: a programme of emergency stabilization works to secure the No 1 Smithery building; and the restoration, adaptation and fit-out of the building to form National Museums at Chatham.

No 1 Smithery
The Smithery occupies a significant and key location at the heart of the Historic Dockyard. As a Scheduled Ancient Monument and Grade II* Listed Building within a prospective World Heritage Site, the restoration and adaptation of the building presents scope to combine best conservation practice with high quality design.

The building itself is architecturally striking and of a grand scale. The project therefore presents an opportunity for a sympathetic yet significant adaptation of an important historic structure in an equally important location. Externally the completed building should have a visibility that ‘signposts’ its status as a nationally significant resource centre and landmark building, whilst respecting the historic nature of its setting.

Restoration Scheme
No 1 Smithery has its origins in the early 19th century. It was added to incrementally over the next 150 years in response to changing demands within the dockyard. The architecture of the building, as we see it today, reflects this development. It is, however, almost wholly of loadbearing brickwork walls, with iron/steel trusses supporting corrugated steel roof sheeting that drain to steel valley gutters.

The building has been redundant since 1972 during which time it has deteriorated steadily. There is extensive damage to the brickwork superstructure in a few isolated areas. This is due to the nature of the subsoil and the effects of failing rainwater goods coupled with extreme weather conditions. The proposed works comprise essential repairs to secure the structure and weathering of the building, including re-roofing, prior to further repairs and refurbishment to bring it back into use to accommodate National Museums at Chatham.

Building Conservation Statement
A Conservation Management Statement for the Smithery has been prepared and adopted which identifies important historical and architectural features that will need to be preserved within the building. In addition there will be a specific requirement that some or all of these features be integrated in the interpretation of the building.

The Museum Partners
The Historic Dockyard Chatham is considered to be one of Europe’s major maritime heritage sites, dating back over 400 years, and one of Britain’s most important naval bases. Currently the subject of a bid for “World Heritage Site” status due to its completeness, its quality, and its documentation of the development of British maritime history from the age of sail, through the development of the ‘ironclads’, to the nuclear age. Three fighting ships are on display – HMS Cavalier, Britain’s last remaining WWII destroyer, the spy submarine Ocelot and the last Victorian Sloop, Gannet. The award-winning Wooden Walls animatronic gallery allows visitors to walk through the Royal Dockyard of 1758 and discover how Britain’s wooden warships were built. ‘Lifeboat!’, the R.N.L.I. National Exhibition Hall, tells the story of this famous volunteer service with a display of sixteen full-size lifeboats, film and artefacts. Among the splendid naval architecture is the only surviving naval ropery in Europe, a quarter-mile long building where craftsmen use traditional techniques to make quality rope that still rigs the world’s grandest sailing ships. The site is also home to the Kent Police Museum.

National Maritime Museum, consists primarily of the Royal Observatory Greenwich, the Queen’s House and National Maritime Museum. It was formally established by Act of Parliament in 1934 and opened to the public by King George VI on 27 April 1937. The public galleries at Greenwich display a thematically arranged selection from the collections and the remainder is accessible for public interest and research in various ways. The collections comprise about 2.48 million items, with over 3000 ship models among them. These include the Training Ship Mercury collection acquired in 1929 for the National Maritime Museum by the Society for Nautical Research, through the Museum’s principal benefactor, Sir James Caird (1864-1954), and the Admiralty model collection. The Museum has the most important holdings in the world on the history of Britain at sea, including maritime art (both British and 17th-century Dutch), cartography, manuscripts, ship models and plans, scientific and navigational instruments, time-keeping and astronomy. Its British portraits collection is only exceeded in size by the National Portrait Gallery, its holdings related to Nelson and Cook are unrivalled. It has the world’s largest maritime historical reference library (100,000 volumes) including books dating back to the 15th century.

Imperial War Museum was founded in 1917 and holds collections relating to every British conflict of the 20th Century. It focuses on the individual’s experience of war from the civilian at home to the soldier at the front. It is unique in its coverage of conflicts, especially those involving Britain and the Commonwealth, from the First World War to the present day. It seeks to provide for, and to encourage, the study and understanding of the history of modern war and ‘war-time experience’. The Imperial War Museum is the authorised place of deposit of government film and photographs which relate to its terms of reference, holds a large reference library and collections of private papers as well as 33,000 hours of oral history recordings, all of which are available for consultation by the public at IWM London. In addition, posters, fine art and sculpture as well as uniforms, aircraft, armoured fighting vehicles and naval vessels are displayed at the Imperial War Museum London, the Cabinet War Rooms, HMS Belfast, IWM Duxford and IWM North in Manchester.

The Science Museum is part of The National Museum of Science & Industry (NMSI) which also includes two award-winning sister museums, th National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford and the National Railway Museum in York.

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