CLIENT FILE 49
Above left and right New Hall is a sustainable collections building at the National Railway Museum’s sister museum, Locomotion, which is located in Shildon, County Durham
Far left and left
The interactive gallery – Wonderlab: The Bramall Gallery – at the National Rail Museum in York
signs of wear and deterioration. Luckily, we have employees who are experts in rail infrastructure and rolling stock, and we’re working with some excellent specialist consultants to help us rectify the issue.
What are your plans for the new Central Hall building? Central Hall is a landmark new building for the National Railway Museum that will sit at the heart of the redesigned site. Providing level access across the whole museum for the first time in its history, it will span the soon-to-be re-routed road that currently bisects the museum site. Feilden Fowles has struck a beautiful balance between past and future. Te building will be spectacular inside and out, creating a world-class welcome. We wanted an element of railway vernacular, and brick felt like the right material. Tere’s also a welcome cylindrical drum with a 25m diameter clad in recycled copper inside and out. Inspired by railway round houses and the rotundas of civic buildings, it is a really interesting, intentional straddle between industrial and civic. From there, you can orientate yourself within the site.
Te Hall will also feature a new café and shop, and a gallery dedicated to the challenges and transformative technologies of the future of railways, and their impact on our lives, designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates. It’s also very important that we have enough toilets, and that these will be gorgeous. We expect work to complete in 2027.
What else is in the pipeline? Our long-term plans include responding to the new public realm spaces of the York Central site with programming, and extending our outdoor offer in South Yard to meet the new city park. We also hope to refresh and reinterpret Great Hall and our Open Store galleries too. We’ll be continuing to evolve for at least another five years.
What are the most challenging, and rewarding aspects of being a design client? Te most challenging aspect at the moment is probably the funding picture – costs are rising and programmes always changing, so keeping ahead of the game is a huge priority for us. It’s also quite a tricky market to find contractors
who are willing to take on complicated museum projects of this scale, and be mindful of our particular requirements. Te most rewarding aspect is seeing these plans come to fruition in creative and collaborative ways. It takes what feels like an army to bring about this amount of change, with so many overlapping projects and programmes. Te rail vehicle moves project alone was described by PriceWaterhouseCoopers as the most complicated project they’d ever seen! So when we approach completion on any one of those elements, it’s a moment to celebrate. We’re so lucky to be able to do this
masterplan project, and to be able to stay open while we’re doing it and share the story of what we’re doing. We’re lucky we have loyal visitors who love what we are, and come back again and again, and I want to make sure we take these people with us on this journey. I do believe that we have a truly special site here. We’re so much more than a museum for railway enthusiasts, and I’d love everyone to come along and enjoy our beautiful museum, which is such a gorgeous space.
PHOTO: SCIENCE MUSEUM GROUP
PHOTO: CHARLOTTE GRAHAM AND SCIENCE MUSEUM GROUP
PHOTO: MARK SLATER & SCIENCE MUSEUM GROUP
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