National Maritime Museum wins Ł12m lottery

Boost for Millennium Celebrations

Greenwich, 22 March 1996

The National Maritime Museum at Greenwich was awarded UKŁ 11.8 million (US$ 18 million) in National Lottery funding for a renovation project ahead of the Millennium celebrations. The money will go towards a UKŁ 19.6 million (US$ 30 million) scheme to revitalise the galleries of the museum's west-wing complex.

Work will include the clearing of a large enclosed area lying behind the museum's main entrance to form a covered courtyard. The courtyard will be laid out as reception facilities for the museum's 600,000 annual visitors and will improve access through galleries surrounding the courtyard. Eleven new galleries will be created.

This will put the National Maritime Museum ``at the forefront of Britain's national museums for the next century''. The museum is staging an international fund-raising campaign to raise the remaining UKŁ 7.8 million (US$ 12 million) needed for the project. Sir David Hardy, Chairman of Trustees of the National Maritime Museum, said: ``This project is about creating nothing less than a new museum. ``We are delighted that it has won such substantial backing from the Heritage Lottery Fund and we may now pursue our fund-raising campaign with renewed vigour.''

The museum galleries form one of three sites of the National Maritime Museum. Restoration and refurbishment has already been carried out at the other two sites; the Queen's House and the Old Royal Observatory.

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