MUSEUMS & ATTRACTIONS IN BRIEF


Pioneer Museum to receive £2.3m upgrade The Pioneer Museum in


Rochdale – the birthplace of the Co-operative movement – is to receive a £2.3m makeover. The Co-operative Heritage Trust has been awarded £1.5m by the Heritage Lottery Fund to fund the development. The museum will be transformed, creating new facilities and learning spaces. Displays will be designed incorporating images and objects from the National Co-operative Archive while new specialist staff will be recruited to work with schools, colleges and the local community using the archive and museum collections.


£1.2m Camera Obscura revamp completed Edinburgh's Camera Obscura


attraction has reopened its doors after a £1.2m renovation project. The attraction, located on the city's famous Royal Mile, has extended 200sq m (2,153sq ft) into the upper two floors of the adjacent 'Ragged School' – a former 19th century home for destitute children – and new exhibits include the Vortex Tunnel of light and the Get Lost mirror maze. It also boasts an Ames Room, which creates giants and dwarves of those that enter it, was originally created by Adelbert Ames in the 1930s.


Yorkshire Museum revamp nearly complete The £2m refurbishment of


Yorkshire Museum in York is nearly complete. The city’s Roman heritage will be the central theme for the new look museum, with major exhibitions also highlighting its strong medieval and natural history collections. Objects on show will include the Middleham Jewel, the most significant Viking Hoard to be found in 150 years and Britain’s biggest Ichthyosaur.


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Merlin reveals Blackpool Tower plans Operator aims to develop new 'Eye' attraction overlooking historic seaside resort


By Pete Hayman Attractions operator Merlin Entertainments has unveiled its plans for a major transforma- tion of Blackpool Tower and Louis Tussauds waxworks. Earlier this year, Blackpool


Council completed the acquisition of the iconic tower, the Winter Gardens and the Golden Mile Centre in a bid to revitalise the Lancashire resort. The council then appointed Merlin to operate the attrac- tions on its behalf. Three of Merlin's brands –


Madame Tussauds, Dungeons and 'Eye' – will be arriving in Blackpool, with plans for the Blackpool Tower Dungeon due to be submitted on 9 August. An Eye observation deck


overlooking Blackpool promenade and seafront, including 4D pre-show, and a sympathetic restoration of the


An observation deck and 4D pre-show are planned for the Tower


Grade I-listed structure are also proposed by the operator. Elsewhere, a new Madame


Tussauds attraction is ear- marked to open in April 2011 and £200,000 has been invested in upgrading the resort's Sea Life attraction. Blackpool Tower's existing venues will be retained. Blackpool Council leader


Peter Callow said: "Bringing the


Chocolate attraction for Bristol? By Tom Walker


A new visitor attraction based on the history of chocolate is being planned for Bristol. Chocolate Harbour is poised


to include a multi-media exhibition, a "chocolate emporium", an in-house chocolaterie and teaching school, as well as a restaurant. The plans are the brainchild


of entrepreneur and local event organiser Laurence Trackman, who describes himself as "a life-long devotee of the history and culture of chocolate". To be located at Bordeaux


Quay, Trackman said the £2.5m centre will be funded through private investment. "We're planning to open in the summer of 2011 to coincide


Tower into public ownership is already paying off." Iain Hawkins, heading up


Merlin's Blackpool operations, added: "A great deal has been achieved in just three months, but by the time we move in in November we will have much more detailed plans to show the people of Blackpool to encourage them to share our enthusiasm for this project."


New water ride for Thorpe Park


In line with its Medium Term Development Plan that was submitted earlier this month, Merlin Entertainments' Thorpe Park theme park has applied for full planning permission to install a new water ride. Subject to approval being


The attraction will be located at Bristol's Bordeaux Quay


with the launch of the spectacu- lar £25m M Shed museum of Bristol," Trackman said. "We are currently working


very closely with Bristol City Council in all respects, which sees this project as one more achievement in bringing diversity to the city's visitor attractions, and to the social life of its historic Harbourside."


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received from Runnymede Borough Council, the 64ft-high (19.5m) ride – to be built by Canada-based WhiteWater West – will be located in an area occupied by Octopus Garden. With a theoretical capacity of


600 people per hour, the ride will be a family attraction where up to six people ride upwards in a raft via a conveyor belt to the top of the structure and then spiral downwards on a chute to ground level.


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