Royal Marines Museum sold

The former Royal Marines

Museum building and historic fort in Eastney has been sold to an international hotelier and will be transformed into a five star hotel. The RM Museum closed to the public in 2017, after a review of the building found it unsustainable as a museum and home for a historic collection. A new museum is planned for the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard site. The Collections have now been moved to a state of the art Collections Centre at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard and will soon be accessible to the public through a new programme of curatorial talks and tours.

On the decision to close and sell the building, National Museum of the Royal Navy Director General, Dominic Tweddle said, “It is clearly something that is very close to the heart of the Royal Marines and the local community. However, the age of the building meant that it simply wasn’t a safe environment in which to store our historic collections leaving them at risk of damage or even ruin. In addition the space, whilst beautiful, would have been extremely difficult to configure modern museum displays and for visitors to move around easily. The cost to have overcome all of those issues would have been extraordinary.”

The new facility will be open to the public next year, enabling them to view and research the Collection, and take tours and talks relating to the items held there.

A new Royal Marines Museum is planned to be created elsewhere at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.