BRISTOL, UK.- Bristol is celebrating as the Heritage Lottery Fund confirmed a £10.2 million grant to support the new Museum of Bristol project. This fantastic news enables work to begin on creating an exciting new interactive museum on Bristol’s harbourside.

The new Museum of Bristol will be developed by Bristol City Council on the site of the present Bristol's Industrial Museum at Princes Wharf.

Preserving the existing architectural footprint and dockside façade of the historic L and M sheds, the new museum will take the best from the existing facility and combine it with state-of-the-art displays, dynamic audio visual materials and items from the city’s nationally-recognised historic collections to develop a heritage attraction of international standard.

The £18.6 million project, scheduled for opening in 2009, will take visitors on a journey of discovery, exploring the city’s history and culture through the eyes and experiences of Bristol people and communities past and present. The aim is to enable everyone to find their own answer to the often asked question: ‘What makes Bristol, Bristol?

The attraction will also explore the possibilities for the city’s future – and engage visitors in helping to shape the city’s vision for the next few decades and beyond.

The design for the new museum building has been developed by internationally-renowned architects LAB Architecture Studios. It preserves the heritage façade of the existing building and ensures that the working cranes and docks railway continue to be a key feature of the harbourside landscape and of the museum itself.

In addition, the new museum will provide:

2500 square metres of new exhibition space over three floors;
A stunning rooftop gallery with views across the city centre and access to a roof terrace;
Education spaces and volunteer facilities;
Engine sheds and workshops;
A café, gift shop and conferencing facilities;
Improved disabled access.
The existing Industrial Museum will close its doors for good on Sunday, October 29th and its 700 items, including historic printing and packaging machinery, shipping memorabilia, buses, cars, helicopters, and even the fuselage of a Concorde aircraft, will all be moved into storage in other parts of the city or to specialist storage facilities elsewhere in the UK.

Once the space is cleared experts exhibition designers, working closely with museum staff, will start to map out the galleries and displays that will attract at least 200,000 visitors a year.

In a move that is unprecedented in the UK, the city council will be working closely with local communities to develop the content for the displays and exhibitions so that it truly tells the story of Bristol and captures the essence of the city’s personality.