National Motor Museum facelift begins

A forest of scaffolding has gone up at the entrance to the Museum to facilitate a package of £200,000 of maintenance and upgrade works to the Museum being funded by the DCMS / Wolfson Museums Improvement Fund.

This first phase will include cleaning and replacement of the wired canopy glass and repainting the steel work in the original orange colour.

Lights will be replaced by LED strip lights and spotlights, IT network cabling will be upgraded, and the concrete parapet walls and paving slabs will be restored.

Jon Murden, Chief Executive of the National Motor Museum says, “The works will also involve installing specially commissioned reproductions to replace the now brittle and leaking Perspex ‘pyramid’ entrance skylights, installation of fully automated doors, and improvements to guttering and drainage.”

“Although, ironically, the entrance to the Museum will fundamentally not look very different at all after these works, they will form an important step in the restoration of the Museum building back to its original glory, and will ensure it provides a bright, clean, easily accessible, and well-cared for welcoming experience for all our visitors.”

“During these works, the Museum will remain open as normal and visitors will access the building through the side entrance opposite World of Top Gear. The experience and displays within the Museum itself are unaffected. If all goes to plan, the high-level works will be completed and the scaffolding removed before the February half-term holiday.”