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| British Museum's £135m extension is on time and on budget, say curators | British Museum's £135m extension is on time and on budget, say curators |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| "Welcome to level one. One day … this will be Africa," announces Tony Spence of a nearly built room that looks anything but with its exposed girders, still-packaged striplights and distinct chill in the air. | "Welcome to level one. One day … this will be Africa," announces Tony Spence of a nearly built room that looks anything but with its exposed girders, still-packaged striplights and distinct chill in the air. |
| Spence is the British Museum's head of collections, and on Monday he helped give a progress report on one of the biggest and most important developments in the museum's 260-year-old history: a £135m extension due to open next March to house its new world conservation and exhibitions centre (WCEC). | Spence is the British Museum's head of collections, and on Monday he helped give a progress report on one of the biggest and most important developments in the museum's 260-year-old history: a £135m extension due to open next March to house its new world conservation and exhibitions centre (WCEC). |
| The extension is of paramount importance, said the museum director, Neil MacGregor. Most of it is for museum operations normally hidden from the public – the stores, conservation labs and offices – but on the ground floor will be a 1,100 sq metre exhibition space far better suited to the kind of blockbuster exhibitions the museum has been staging in the reading room space. The size and flexibility of the rectangular room will mean that never again, it hopes, will the museum negotiate a loan that it cannot fit in – as happened with a vast sculpture of Antinous (Hadrian's lover) as Osiris that it borrowed from the Vatican for the 2008 Hadrian show but had to display in the Great Court because it could not be tilted through the door. | The extension is of paramount importance, said the museum director, Neil MacGregor. Most of it is for museum operations normally hidden from the public – the stores, conservation labs and offices – but on the ground floor will be a 1,100 sq metre exhibition space far better suited to the kind of blockbuster exhibitions the museum has been staging in the reading room space. The size and flexibility of the rectangular room will mean that never again, it hopes, will the museum negotiate a loan that it cannot fit in – as happened with a vast sculpture of Antinous (Hadrian's lover) as Osiris that it borrowed from the Vatican for the 2008 Hadrian show but had to display in the Great Court because it could not be tilted through the door. |
| As an example of things to come, MacGregor said the museum was able to borrow and would display the largest-known Viking ship, more than 35 metres long, in its first show – on the Vikings – in the space next year. | As an example of things to come, MacGregor said the museum was able to borrow and would display the largest-known Viking ship, more than 35 metres long, in its first show – on the Vikings – in the space next year. |
| The WCEC ranks in importance with Norman Foster's redevelopment of the Great Court in 2000 and is the latest in a long history of changes. MacGregor said: "Almost in every decade, there's had to be some kind of amendment, adjustment or extension to the building to make it fit for purpose." | |
| The development will allow the museum to move huge swaths of its collection from stores in east and west London back to the museum in state-of-the-art facilities. Not necessarily the millions of archaeological fragments and arrow heads it has but the more vulnerable organic material. | The development will allow the museum to move huge swaths of its collection from stores in east and west London back to the museum in state-of-the-art facilities. Not necessarily the millions of archaeological fragments and arrow heads it has but the more vulnerable organic material. |
| The work is being carried out in the museum's north-west corner, an apparently small space which is, in fact, vast. Because it is going nearly 19 metres underground as well as 26 metres up from street level, the museum is creating 18,000 sq metres of floor area – equal to 14 Olympic-size swimming pools. There will be nine floors and 175 staff in the centre, designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, for which four-fifths of the money has been raised. | The work is being carried out in the museum's north-west corner, an apparently small space which is, in fact, vast. Because it is going nearly 19 metres underground as well as 26 metres up from street level, the museum is creating 18,000 sq metres of floor area – equal to 14 Olympic-size swimming pools. There will be nine floors and 175 staff in the centre, designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, for which four-fifths of the money has been raised. |
| Despite the harsh winter, the project is on time and on budget and the museum has been fortunate in not having to worry about disturbing sewers, tube lines and, luckily, anything of major archaeological interest. "We had a rather run-of-the-mill civil war moment, which turned out to be pleasingly banal," said MacGregor. | Despite the harsh winter, the project is on time and on budget and the museum has been fortunate in not having to worry about disturbing sewers, tube lines and, luckily, anything of major archaeological interest. "We had a rather run-of-the-mill civil war moment, which turned out to be pleasingly banal," said MacGregor. |