£11 million investment on Museum of Liverpool

Heritage Lottery Fund money confirmed

The Museum of Liverpool has been awarded a confirmed grant of £11 million by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

National Museums Liverpool will use this grant towards the fit out of the museum, which is currently under construction at Liverpool’s Pier Head.

Carole Souter, Chief Executive of the Heritage Lottery Fund, said:

“The Museum of Liverpool will provide a wonderful new opportunity for people to learn more about the city and its role in British and world history. In this year when Liverpool is European Capital of Culture, we’re delighted to be able to confirm our support for this ambitious project which will bring the story of the city to life.”

David Fleming, Director of National Museums Liverpool, said:

“The Heritage Lottery Fund's endorsement signifies the outstanding importance of this new national museum, which is the great legacy of Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture. I am grateful to everyone who has worked in support of the museum so far. The project is like the Grand National and having cleared the final major hurdle, we're now on the home straight.”

The Museum of Liverpool is a brand new national museum located on Liverpool’s world famous waterfront. Opening in 2010/11 it will be a fantastic family visitor attraction and an exceptional learning and community resource telling the story of Liverpool’s unique development.

The museum will provide 8,000 square metres of public space across three floors, and visitors will have access to over 6,000 objects that are currently in store, many of which have never been on public display before.

The museum will focus on four main themes: Port City, Creative City, People’s City and Global City.

In Port City visitors can explore how Liverpool transformed itself from a small tidal inlet to one of the world’s great ports. Liverpool led the world in developing the early canals, the first timetabled passenger railway, new dock technologies and the Liverpool Overhead Railway – the world’s first elevated electrified railway.

Visitors can celebrate the creative personality of Liverpool in Creative City, and uncover why the city has produced such an amazing roll call of writers, poets, performers, musicians, visual artists, comedians and sports people.

People’s City is about the experience of living in the city: what it means to be Liverpudlian, how people have left their mark on Liverpool and the impact and issues caused by dramatic social change over the last 200 years.

19th century Liverpool sat at the heart of a global business network, the commercial and mercantile equal of London or New York, and the second most important city in the British Empire. Global City explores the extent of Liverpool’s global links and uncovers the stories of the workers, innovators, entrepreneurs and reformers behind the city’s international connections.

The museum also features a tailor-made gallery for children under six called Little Liverpool: a fantasy dreamscape where our youngest visitors can relax, play and explore. A thirty-eight metre timeline packed with objects forms the backbone of our History Detectives gallery, where an interactive map of Merseyside explores how places change, and visitors can discover the key events that shaped Liverpool’s history.

These innovative galleries are based within the Museum of Liverpool’s specifically commissioned spaces. The museum is based on an x-shaped design and is clad in stone. Beneath the surface is a cutting-edge, complex steel frame which contains 2,100 tonnes of structural steel.       

The steel structure allows the museum’s largest exhibition spaces, which are 40 metres long by 28 metres wide, to be column free, ensuring that the galleries and public spaces are maximised.

All stages of the museum project, from design to construction and fit-out, use cutting edge developments in materials and processes, and are on a large scale.

Some construction facts include:

• 20,000 cubic metres  of soil – equivalent to eight Olympic swimming pools – has been excavated from the site
• The museum’s frame is constructed with 2,100 tonnes of steel – equivalent to 270 Double Decker buses
• 5,700 square metres of natural Jura stone is being used to clad the museum, which if laid out flat would cover a football pitch
• 1,500 square metres of glazing will be used, mainly in two large picture windows, one at each end of the building. The windows are 8 m high by 28 m wide, and offer striking views of the Pier Head and the River Mersey
• A spectacular atrium, containing an elliptical staircase, will be lit by natural light from a skylight in the centre of the building
• The total surface area of the museum’s floor space is 10,000 square metres and the surface area of the roof is 3,700 square metres
• 7,500 cubic metres of concrete and 20 tonnes of bolts have been used to build the museum
• The building footprint occupies an area 110 m long by 60 m wide and at its tallest point it is 26 m high. That makes it longer than the pitches at either Anfield or Goodison Park, more than twice as wide as the Titanic, and as tall as five Liver Building Liver birds placed end to end
• The museum is striving for strong environmental credentials. It will feature a rainwater harvesting system and will be powered by an energy centre with a CHP (Combined Heat and Power) plant
• Total cost of the project – from building to fit out – is around £70 million

As a major boost to the Liverpool economy, it is estimated the Museum of Liverpool will attract more than 750,000 visitors per year, providing at least 500 construction jobs and 73 direct permanent jobs.

A new display about the museum has now opened at Piermaster’s House, Albert Dock. It features a model of the museum and the developments that surround it, and more information about the museum’s galleries and the objects and stories they will feature. The display is open daily from 10am to 5pm.

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