Alistair Hardaker | Image: NRM Director Craig Bentley with Porterbrook CEO Mary Grant
Construction begins on Central Hall and Railway Futures gallery at National Railway Museum.
Construction has begun on the National Railway’s Central Hall, and a new gallery.
The new gallery, ‘Railway Futures’ will centre around the history of railways while encouraging visitors to imagine what the future of rail could look like.
In June the museum received £3m in additional government funding for the project, enabling it to sign the main construction contract, which would assist with increased costs stemming from the closure of Leeman Road, which ran through the museum site, splitting it in two.
The investment builds on support from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 2019.
Central Hall, designed by architects Feilden Fowles, is a circular building referencing historic locomotive roundhouses. It will sit at the centre of the redesigned museum site and will provide level access throughout the museum for the first time.
The project was initially scheduled to open in Autumn 2025, in time for the museum’s 50-year anniversary, it is now expected to complete in 2028.
Craig Bentley, Director of the National Railway Museum, said, “This celebration marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the National Railway Museum. Central Hall and Railway Futures: The Porterbrook Gallery will transform how people experience the museum.
“We are enormously grateful to the funders, partners and supporters who have helped bring us to this point. Together, we are laying the foundations for a museum that preserves the past, serves the present and inspires the future.”
