Behind the scenes at Edinburgh's Royal Museum… a sneak preview during renovation

Published on Monday 21 June 2010 23:23

AFTER more than two years of behind-the-scenes activity, involving 250 workers, the wraps are finally starting to come off one of Scotland's most important cultural projects for a generation.

• The famous 1960s fishtanks have disappeared as the museum's main hall is stripped back

The countdown to the unveiling of a new look for Edinburgh's flagship Victorian museum was signalled yesterday as it was announced the 46.4 million revamp was on budget and on schedule to open in a year's time.

A sneak preview of the major changes ordered for the Royal Museum building in Chambers Street has given a first insight into what National Museums Scotland promised would be a "whole new museum".

From next summer, the tens of thousands of visitors who flock to the Chambers Street site every week will find the much-loved attraction transformed by a dramatic new entrance hall, modern restaurants, 16 new gallery spaces, glass lifts and escalators.

About 50 per cent more public space has been created by knocking through walls added to the building during the 20th century. The old Royal Museum building closed completely at the end of April 2008 to make way for a project aimed at giving the capital a brand-new, world-class attraction.

From September, work will begin to create the new exhibition spaces, while contractor Balfour Beatty is due to hand over the whole building to National Museums Scotland at the end of year to allow the full fit-out to carry on.

A new floor has been created after more than two million objects were moved out of basement cellars and into a new collections centre. This new arrivals hall will be accessed from street level, in a major change to the building, which dates from 1866.

From there, visitors will have easy access to the Grand Gallery, where a new centrepiece "Wall of Wonders" attraction, featuring almost 1,000 rarely seen treasures from the museums' collections, is starting to take shape.

More than 7,000 exhibits will be going on display in new galleries, devoted to the likes of the natural world, discovery and innovation, world cultures and learning.

A new gallery – 25 per cent larger than the previous space – is being created to help the museum to attract blockbuster exhibitions.

Highlights of the new building include a rooftop restaurant, the opening up of spectacular vistas throughout the building for the first time in decades, fully restored Victorian arches, which were discovered intact by builders, and a new education and conference centre.

• A 'Wall of Wonders' attraction will feature rarely seen treasures. Picture: Complimentary

The project was the winner of Scotland's biggest lottery award – 17.8m – and is expected to see visitors at the museum site, which also includes the new Museum of Scotland building that opened in 1999.

Scotland's largest museum, to be known from next year as the National Museum of Scotland, will also be opened up at night for the first time for major events, with visitor numbers expected to rise from about 800,000 a year before the revamp started, to about 1.1 million.

The museum previously announced that the overhaul would mean the end of the popular fish tanks in the main hall – a feature added in the 1960s.

Talks are already under way with Festival and event organisers about using the building for dance, music and theatre productions, while a new public piazza is envisaged for the rear of the building in future years under plans being drawn up with Edinburgh University.

Dr Gordon Rintoul, director of the National Museums Scotland, which started planning on the project more than seven years ago, said: "This is really the first time in the history of the building that there has been a proper refurbishment.

"There have been a lot of changes made over the years, and a lot of the original architecture was hidden behind walls, blocked off, or destroyed for one reason or another.

"Part of the problem with the old building was there was very poor access. When we surveyed visitors, we found that just 10 per cent of them actually made it to the first floor and only 5 per cent on to the second.

"We've had a huge operation to create the new arrivals halls, with moving all the objects that were stored in there out to our collections centre, and relocating all the old infrastructure."

• A floor has been created for the new arrivals hall

Dr Rintoul, who described the museum as "a treasure house for the nation", said he was "delighted" the project was running as planned, but said an opening date next summer would not be announced until nearer the time. He added: "We're creating 50 per cent more space in the building, much of which was used for storage space, or was hidden away.

"A lot more of our collection is going on display, and we've also been using our acquisitions budget to invest in new objects.

"Around 80 per cent of the thousands of exhibits we will have will either be going on display for the first time, or will have rarely been on public display."

Gems from an eclectic collection

&#149 A restored Maori war canoe thought to have belonged to Thomas Brisbane, the 19th-century Scottish governor of what was then New South Wales. It was found in pieces as the museum emptied its Chambers Street cellars in advance of construction work.

&#149 A coffin shaped like a Mercedez-Benz, from Ghana, in West Africa. It is carved from wood and painted white with silver, black and orange details, and comes with silver headlights, wing mirrors, an aerial and the trademark badge.

&#149 A life-size Tyrannosaurus rex will dominate the entrance to the new Life Works gallery which will explore how animals have adapted over millions of years on Earth. The bones will be cast from a skeleton held by the Museum of the Rockies in Canada.

&#149 A fully-restored delicate Chinese headdress decorated with feathers from kingfishers. Dating from the 18th century, its origins are unknown, although such headdresses would be worn either by a bride on her wedding day or by an aristocratic lady on formal occasions.

&#149 A recently-acquired rare painting of Alexander Dalrymple, the Scot who set about scientifically mapping the world's waters for the navy. He is credited with the creation and design of the 18th-century Admiralty Chart, developed over 150 years to form a collection of more than 4,000 charts.

&#149 A 210-million-year-old fossilised tree slice from the Petrified Forest in Arizona, one of the US landscapes the Scot John Muir helped to save.