At the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we believe in the power of heritage and museums to inspire, offer joy, build pride in place and to provide a space for people and communities to connect.
Since 1994, thanks to National Lottery players, the Heritage Fund has awarded £8.6bn to more than 47,000 projects, including £2.4billion to 5,900 museum, library, archive, and collections projects, including recently announcing £7.6m of fresh investment into brilliant, diverse and much-loved museums across the UK.
Over the past 30 years, our grants have transformed the UK’s museums, libraries, and archives by restoring buildings, sharing more collections and stories, and fostering community collaboration. Our investments have widened access, driven economic growth, improved sustainability, built pride in place and saved vital heritage.
It has been incredible to play a role in supporting thousands of projects come to fruition, and our approach has been shaped by the expertise of our teams, alongside
generous contributions and creativity of our partners and stakeholders who care deeply about the heritage held by museums, libraries and archives.
One of our first ever grants went to the internationally renowned Natural History Museum, which received over £6m funding in 1995 for the redevelopment of its Earth Galleries. This summer, we completed our latest project in partnership, the Urban Nature Project, transforming the five acres surrounding the building in the heart of London, into an accessible, free-to-visit green space to explore the story of life on Earth.
This summer we supported the UK’s sporting heritage with funding awarded to the Lancashire Cricket Heritage Experience as well as over £2.7m to Wrexham Museums funding the creation of the National Football Museum and a permanent public display of the full Welsh Football Collection, with many items being revealed for the first time. By connecting communities and attracting visitors, museums drive tourism and economic growth, increasing skills, creating jobs and providing educational resources for all ages.
Over the last three decades, there has been increasing recognition of heritage contributing to ‘place-shaping,’ enhancing the character of a town or city, attracting people to live and work. Our investment in the Museum of Liverpool is a prime example. With an initial £30m grant in 2002 for the ‘Into the Future’ project, it enabled the complete relocation and development of a city centre museum. In 2006, we boosted the project with an additional £11.4m, and the museum opened its doors to the public for the first time in 2011. Since then, it has developed into a cultural landmark, free to access, contributing around £53m to the local economy, and attracting millions of tourists from around the world. Liverpool was named the European City of Culture in 2008 and is currently the 5th most visited city in the UK.
Our ambition is to support projects of all sizes that connect people and communities to their heritage – such as the Ulster Museum in Belfast which reimagined its Troubles and Beyond gallery to bring together multiple perspectives on the difficult issues of the past in Northern Ireland. The People’s History Museum in Manchester offers a place to explore the working people of the UK and the history of democracy, and our recent funding to the People’s Palace in Glasgow allows for essential restoration of the museum dedicated to showcasing Glasgow’s social history and telling the stories of Glaswegians for many years to come.
Also in Scotland, Kilmartin Museum, a small, independent museum in the heritage rich region between Lochgilphead and Oban, was founded in 1997. Starting with 10 objects, it has expanded its collection to over 22,000 artefacts. Hit hard by the pandemic, it faced closure, but with community support, organisational resilience and a £3.2m grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, it reopened in 2023. Inspired by the history and archaeology on its doorstep, its collection has been named as Nationally Significant by Museums Galleries Scotland.
The operating landscape for museums has changed over the last 30 years. UK museums are adapting and changing, becoming more diverse, innovative and rooted in their communities. They are pioneering digital technology, engaging audiences online and revitalising collections. This shift has made our museums hubs for connecting people and culture – allowing everyone to uncover amazing heritage.
However, we know that museums are facing a myriad of challenges, from the remaining impacts of Covid 19, to the changing nature of visitor behaviour, as well as the cost of living pressures and now local authority and public funding pressures. We recognise the importance of a resilient sector and will continue to work with museums to see how our investment can contribute to museum resilience, and prepare for a changed environment, while remaining people-focused, relevant and the centre of communities right across the UK.
Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players over the last 30 years, we have achieved so much but we are now looking to the next ten years with Heritage 2033. We plan to invest over £3.6billion raised for good causes by National Lottery players to make a decisive difference for people, places and communities and support our vision for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future.
