Plymouth set to reap bounty from new £40m museum and art gallery

Plymouth’s £40million new museum and art gallery is expected to put the city in the premier league of cultural attractions – not just in the UK but internationally.

The Box, a stunning part new-build and part listed building revamp, will open in May 2020, and Business Live has been given a sneak look around inside as it is being fitted out.

The completed project will give Plymouth a cultural space the rival of any in the UK or abroad, creating a space where artefacts from the city’s history, many or national importance, can be displayed alongside touring exhibitions from the national galleries.

It is expected that the city centre building, being opened to mark the Mayflower 400 commemorations, will drive visitors to the city and establish Plymouth as a leading cultural centre.

For instance, the UK’s largest touring exhibition of contemporary British Art will be heading to Plymouth in 2021, following the official announcement by London’s Hayward Gallery that the city has been selected as one of the four host locations – along side Manchester, Wolverhampton and Aberdeen - for British Art Show 9.

David Draffan, head of service at Plymouth City Council, said The Box would create a “shining beacon” for national galleries looking for locations to tour.

He said: “This allows us to have the best artists in the UK and the world exhibit here.”

Nicoletta Lambertucci, contemporary art curator at The Box added: “I can’t see any museum like the Box in the country, with the breadth of ambition we have. It’s not just contemporary arts but culture in general and history.

“We are moving towards a redefinition of what a museum can do for a city and the nation.”

She said The Box would be a site of national importance and “absolutely” position the city in the premier league of cultural centres globally.

“We are in dialogue with other museums of established international recognition, but not copying them,” she said.

The Box has been created inside the old Grade II listed museum and library in Plmouth’s North Hill, and in a former church behind it.

It will contain astounding displays and visiting art works, and the unique Archive in the Sky where Plymouth’s most valuable and important cultural and historic artefacts will be stored.

Tudor Evans, Labour leader of Plymouth City Council, said: “This is the most brilliant cultural regeneration project, which marries the old with the new.”

And opposition leader, Tory Cllr Ian Bowyer, said: “It’s a building that combines conservation with innovation.”

Among the highlights in The Box are:

St Luke’s Chapel

The former church, built in the 1820s, has been converted into a temperature- and light-controlled art gallery, which will host displays of national importance.

It has been revamped into a contemporary art space, with a new mezzanine, which needed new super-strong foundations, and a new-build extension attached on one side of the building.

Some of the existing pews have been restored and all the stained-glass windows refurbished – and covered up – but will be lit so they can be seen from the outside.

Portuguese artist Leonor Antunes has been commissioned to create one large stained-glass window in the East Window, which will be uncovered soon, and will be the first artist to display in the gallery.

The new suspended ceiling is a “grid of steel” from which huge sculpture and other works of art can be suspended.

Tavistock Place

The area between the Box and St Luke’s Chapel has been attractively paved over to form a pedestrian area where people can sit and eat, enjoy music and mini-markets and enjoy street food and coffee from a soon-to-be-installed “Little Box” vending pod.

The revamped and landscaped area has also opened up a walk-through to Chapel Street. And visitors will be able to gaze in awe at the actual third-floor Archive in the Sky, which comprises 6,273 tonnes of concrete in the largest cantilevered structure in the UK and is covered in 2,500 panes of white, grey, black and mirrored stainless steel, which will reflect the colour of the sky.

The Entrance

Dubbed The Wow Space, the new glazed entrance on Tavistock Place will welcome visitors into a large and spacious cafe, bistro and bar and a shop, in an area featuring 11-metre high columns, where a display of 14 ship’s figureheads are suspended from the ceiling and the famous statue of King William IV, dubbed “King Billy’s Statue”, take pride of place and is expected to become a “selfie point”.

The figureheads have been carefully restored and come from the Devonport naval collection. They hang from the immensely strong concrete archive above.

The cafe, bistro bar, will be open into the evenings from Thursdays to Saturdays and available for corporate hire, is, alongside the shop, an important generator of revenue for the free-to-enter attraction.

The Learning Space

This area, in what was the old library, is a teaching room and contains a “Wonderwall” where artefacts can be displayed behind glass.

It also features a mural created by Cornish artist Wyn George in the 1950s, which has been covered up for more than 50 years.

The room will be named the Simmons Learning Space, after Gareth Simmons, the Box’s strategic project director who died in 2019.

The Active Archive and Cottonian Museum

A floor over the new entrance, and below the Archive in the Sky, has been created and will be named the Active Archive.

It will contain computers where people can look at the documents and items stored in the museum and carry out research. They can use their own laptops if they wish too.

There are also pod displays revealing such things as the history of Union Street, the Blitz and other events, which will change over time. There is also a digital map table.

The former Cottonian reading room is now a dedicated research area which features highlights from the city’s historically significant Cottonian Collection of paintings, books, prints, ceramics, bronzes and sculpture.

The Archive in the Sky

This top-floor windowless box houses the most significant, rare and valuable paintings and documents and has been purpose built to protect and preserve them.

Inside the thick concrete casing, the vast room contains huge metal racks, on paintings and other items are hung, and dozens of metal cabinets and draws, where other artefacts are stored in 24,000 cardboard boxes.

The extension has no windows, so no natural light can damage the items contained inside it. Much of the time it will be in darkness, with temperature and humidity strictly controlled – there is no sprinkler system and even the walls have no paint on them because even that can damage the relics by leaking tiny particles of moisture into the atmosphere.

The vault will be open to the public with supervised tours four days a week.

Among the many astonishing items that have been moved from the former archive in Cattedown are a letter written by Queen Elizabeth I to Sir Francis Drake, and “the oldest pasty recipe in the country”.

Media Lab

Among the 13 new galleries and exhibition spaces is this area where people can watch a selection of 10,000 films and videos, including the first movie shot in 1898 and the first colour film made in 1939.

And you can watch footage, such as of the opening of Plymouth Airport of the Tamara Bridge, on a huge wrap-around screen that covers three walls.

Underneath the entrance is a film library hidden in the basement and containing items from the South West Image Bank and South West Film and Television Archive. It is cooled to -15C.

The 100 Journeys Gallery

Among the “world class galleries” are items depicting the history of Plymouth and the “dockyard, navy and (Plymouth) Argyle”.

A natural history gallery will house a mammoth, another will have displays showing the naval history of Plymouth. A bear pelt “caveman coat” will be displayed, and the stories of the Breakwater, fishing and dockyard all told.

The 100 Journeys Gallery details 100 journeys of discovery which started in the city, including the tales of Drake, Cook, Raleigh and Scott.

The galleries have all received new wall linings and ceilings, the stylish parquet and terrazzo floors have been refurbished and amazing new lighting designs have been installed.

The Box was built by Willmott Dixon, and fitted out by The Hub. Funders include Plymouth City Council, National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England. Construction work started in February 2017.