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£35m Maritime Museum wing will be toast of 2012
Ruth Bloomfield09.04.09
THE National Maritime Museum is to get a £35 million “toast rack” extension, it emerged today.
Greenwich council has given the green light to the scheme and the Mayor will not exercise his right to intervene against it.
The centrepiece to the proposal is an 800 square metre exhibition space.
Visitors will also be able to research family histories in a reading room and there will be a new archive, research space, and a series of smaller additional galleries.
There will be a restaurant with terraces overlooking Greenwich Park and a new south entrance to give access to the Grade I-listed museum from the park.
The wing — designed by Danish architects CF Moller, which created the “cocoon” extension at the Natural History Museum — is being funded with the help of a £20 million donation from Israeli shipping magnate Sammy Ofer, 87, who served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War.
A museum spokeswoman confirmed that work is to begin this summer, and is due to be completed for the 2012 Olympics.
Greenwich Park will host the equestrian events at the Games and as part of its backdrop the museum will be seen by millions.
A report on the proposal by the GLA says the extension, which involves demolishing more modern parts of the building, “comprises a neat and elegant solution to extending a national museum in a very sensitive location”.
To reduce the building's carbon footprint it will have green roofs and rainwater will be collected to flush toilets.
Reader views (2)
I hope they spare a little money to fix the roads around Greenwich. Why bother with trying to reduce the carbon footprint with green roofs, when the extra traffic the exhibiton space will bring in will more than double the exhisting levels and worsen the gridlock we have at present in this part of the capital
- Mr S.Port, London
well done our history means a lot to future generations
- Arthur Ruse, dover uk
