PROJECT 1 033


Clockwise The ‘pause space’ between the galleries is left white; the material-focused redesign helps to bring Wordsworth’s words to life; Dorothy Wordsworth’s celebrated Grasmere journals, on display, helped to inform the museum’s design; the choice of natural colours and materials help the museum blend into the landscape


for visitors to explore the cottage using all their senses… effectively becoming “Wordsworthian” as they pass through the space, walking where William and Dorothy walked, sitting where they sat, ascending the same staircase, seeing through the same windows.’


After Dove Cottage, visitors pass through its garden. These outside spaces are an important part of the museum experience, and OPEN worked to ensure existing trees were retained, while taking inspiration for new planting proposals from both William and Dorothy’s writing.


The visitor journey itself was inspired by the poet’s processes, Nissen explains: ‘He would first experience the landscape and then reflect back on that experience in terms of “spots of time”, by pacing and walking, referring to his poetry as “emotion recalled in tranquillity”. We have reflected this by creating more intense moments, followed by a pause space for reflection and further connection to the landscape.’ The ‘pause space,’ located between the four galleries that make up the museum, is left white, like a blank page at the start of writing, but quotes on the wall in a dichroic material come alive through colour. Each of the different gallery spaces, meanwhile, are coloured in accordance with their contents. Gallery One has a nature- inspired soundscape and is coloured blue after the slate quarry of Loughrigg Fell. Here poems


such as I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud are highlighted, and the display mixes manuscripts with objects such as Wordsworth’s ice skates. Gallery Two features two screens with a 50-minute loop of recited poetry, recorded in a range of voices from well-known actors, academics and local people, with a monochromatic scheme that allows the AV to dominate. Gallery Three is inspired by ink stains, devoted to the physical act of writing, while documenting the creation of The Prelude, Wordsworth’s major life work and a significant part of the canon of English literature; 23 of its 24 manuscripts are displayed here. Gallery Four, coloured in slate and rust tones, returns to the ground in order to root Wordsworth’s work and life in the landscape. It explores his family life and its full-height display cases of


Right Outside spaces are also an important part of the museum experience


mini room-sets help recreate a sense of domesticity.


Curator and head of learning Jeff Cowton said the team were ‘overwhelmed by the way in which the interpretation and design makes Wordsworth’s words live’. But it is not just his words that are given life: ‘The displays spark our imaginations into the lives of real people living 200 years ago and lead us to think of the relevance of their words for us today.’ Through the material-focused and sensory redesign of the museum the Wordsworths are reanimated, but equally important is the way the landscape brought in, as well as the work, craft and voices of local people – fulfilling the client’s wish that the link to the local area be underscored – making the project all the richer.


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