LOTTERY REJECTS NATIONAL RAILWAY MUSEUM’S BID FOR £13.4M FUNDING
NRM Director Judith McNichol reveals further details of the museum’s ‘Masterplan’.
National Railway Museum Director Judith McNichol insists that the museum’s £50 million ‘Masterplan’ will still go ahead, despite the failure to secure Stage One funding for its £13.4m bid from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The rejection is a significant blow for the NRM, which has just unveiled its new £100,000 re-brand (see separate story), and the news follows a rebuff by the HLF for £9.5m for the its affiliated museum project at Leicester North on the Great Central Railway in December (see SR475). Despite not securing HLF support, the museum says the ‘Masterplan’ – which includes an interactive Science Museum-inspired ‘Wonderlab’, a new Central Gallery across Leeman Road and a new Open Store – will still be implemented. Ms McNichol said: “While we are disappointed to receive the news that our Stage One bid to the HLF for £13.4m was not successful, we had never envisaged delivering our vision through one funder. We remain completely committed to our vision, which includes Wonderlab, the Great Hall redevelopment and the Central Gallery as part of York Central, and have already begun conversations with other potential funders to make this a reality. “We will now take some time to review the phasing and timescales for the projects that form our vision and how these best fit with the exciting plans for York Central.” An NRM spokesman said: “The overall Masterplan development project will continue without HLF funding, although likely in a different sequence and timeframe.” The HLF did not disclose its reasons for rejecting the NRM’s funding bid, but told Steam Railway: “The major grants board meeting considered a number of highly competitive applications. We are unable to support all the funding applications we received.” Speaking to Steam Railway, Ms McNichol outlined more details about the ‘Masterplan’ and the proposed redevelopment. “We are working up lots of lists about what will be where and at what point, though we’re not at a point where we can go into detail. “Rocket is coming here, but the star objects that we have here today will be staying [during the redevelopment] and other star objects that aren’t here at the moment will also be coming, but we haven’t got the finalised list of those things yet.” Ms McNichol also confirmed that workshop facilities will remain at the NRM. She said: “We will be moving our heavy workshop to Shildon and doing redevelopment there that will include a heavy workshop, and we will have a light workshop on site in York – probably in the South Yard. That will enable us to still operate our steam rides and miniature railway, so it will be very much in line with what the museum needs, as we don’t really use the workshop any more. “The redevelopment of the workshops won’t be until the Sir Nigel Gresley Locomotive Trust is
THE OVERALL MASTERPLAN DEVELOPMENT PROJECT WILL CONTINUE NRM SPOKESMAN
finished with it, but we will have something here so we can keep working, and there will still be coal and water available.” As part of the wider York Central development, the NRM will also operate standard gauge steam rides. “It’s what we have now but it will form part of the park and our South Yard redevelopment, which will be part of the park as well.”