35m Museum gets backing

Date: 2003-12-05, Publication: The Journal

Top architect Sir Terry Farrell will today throw his weight behind a bid for a £36m Great North Museum.

Sir Terry, educated in Newcastle and now an internationally recognised architect and urban designer, will meet a deputation from the Heritage Lottery Fund in the city.

They will be running the rule over a plea for £18m which is crucial to a project that would see the Hancock, Shefton and Antiquities museums in Newcastle merge with Newcastle University's Hatton Gallery also being integrated into the new complex.

The HLF delegation will also meet representatives from Newcastle University, Tyne & Wear Museums, Newcastle City Council, Newcastle Gateshead Initiative, Natural History Society of Northumbria and the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries.

Sir Terry, who worked on the International Centre for Life and the East Quayside masterplan in the city, has also been commissioned to produce a redesign of Newcastle University's campus.

He said: "The museum proposals comprise the restoration of fine historic architecture and the addition of exciting new build- ings.

"This, together with refreshed and re-interpreted museum collections, will create a great new place in Newcastle - like a Cultural Quarter.

"One of the most exciting results for me of our recent planning work in Newcastle has been the rediscovery of the cultural richness of heritage that is embedded in the city of my childhood and early architectural education."

The plans would see the Hancock Museum completely redeveloped and the listed buildings at the bottom of Claremont Road incorporated into a new museum complex which would be connected by a bridge to the Hancock.

This area would also house an orientation area, a shop, a cafe-cum-restaurant, libraries, offices and education spaces.

There will also be a purpose-built display space for temporary exhibitions.

The new museum would incorporate the natural history and ethnography collections at the Hancock Museum with the historical collections of the university's Shefton Museum - one of the country's finest Greek and Etruscan collections - and the Museum of Antiquities, which houses important prehistoric and Roman collections.

Eric Cross, Newcastle University's Dean of Cultural Affairs, said: "We are expecting a decision regarding the project from the Heritage Lottery Fund in January next year.

"We believe the plans will create an exciting and innovative world-class museum.

"It will allow the internationally significant collections to be seen by vastly more people and inspire future generations."

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