National Museum of the Royal Navy to tell the story of the Royal Navy from 1900 to the present day

The National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard has recently been awarded an HLF grant to allow project architects Purcell Miller Tritton to complete the transformation of the Museum’s Storehouse 10 building.

The project, which has already received planning and listed building consent, will begin in late 2012, and open to public in 2014 (the centenary of the start of World War I). It will enable the NMRN to introduce a key part of maritime history at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, adding to the museum’s existing Nelson Gallery and Sailing Navy Gallery. New 20th and 21st Century galleries will be incorporated into the scheme to create a seamless chronological timeline of naval history from the 18th Century to the present day.

Purcell Miller Tritton will work in partnership with the NMRN to enable the museum to fulfil its aspirations for the project, restoring the 18th Century Storehouse 10 building, one of the finest Georgian storehouses in the UK, to provide new and innovative exhibition spaces for the museum’s vast collections. A contemporary glazed link, the product of careful design evolution, will connect these spaces to the existing Storehouse 11 galleries, enabling the museum to showcase four centuries of important naval history properly for the first time. Internal alterations will also revitalise the gallery interiors, which will incorporate new exhibition fittings/displays.

The finished scheme will enjoy a simple yet elegant architectural language informed by the existing architectural rhythm of the site and subordinate to the grandeur and architectural massing of the Storehouse buildings. In addition to the new glazed link, the existing open colonnade arches to the east elevation will be infilled with fully glazed screens to house additional contemporary gallery space. State-of-the-art interactive displays and exhibitions will help bring the collections alive and into the 21st Century for everyone to learn from and enjoy.

“Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is a special place and Purcell Miller Tritton is very pleased to be working at the dockyard and on the 20th/21st Century Galleries, which will enable the museum to complete the story of the navy from Nelson to the present day.”

Martin Dunseath, Associate, Purcell Miller Tritton