The Stage

ACE refuses Theatre Museum funding for redevelopment

Published Tuesday 16 March 2004 at 14:20 by Ruth Gillespie

The Theatre Museum, Covent Garden, has been forced to put redevelopment plans on hold following Arts Council England’s refusal to grant a £9 million funding application.

The rejected bid was part of a £12 million project to double the exhibition space in the building and raise the museum’s profile in the West End in an attempt to attract more visitors.

A spokesperson said: “There were a lot of very big projects and strong competition for funding. We are still very keen to continue with our plans and are looking at alternative sources of money. This could come through private donations or other grants. Our original timescale will be altered as we don’t yet know where this money will come from and it is impossible to say whether the initial plans will have to be changed.”

The museum applied for a £9 million Heritage Lottery Grant in November and had planned to raise the final £3 million through a £500,000 donation from parent company V&A and a fundraising scheme, which was due to be launched next year.

However, ACE’s decision could threaten the project altogether as work had initially been planned to coincide with the redevelopment of the London Transport Museum, which is situated directly above it.

Building proposals, drawn up by Royal Court architect Haworth Tompkins, involve opening up the two exhibition areas, moving the offices to another site and creating special education areas where visitors will be able to use both film and computer technology to access archives.

In addition, the windows at the front of the ground floor of the building would be unblocked to allow in more natural light and the existing entrance ramp would be replaced with a staircase and lift.