Theatre Museum/BFI merger proposed

Published Thursday 13 July 2006 at 14:00 by Alistair Smith

National Heritage chairman James Bishop has called for the endangered Theatre Museum to unite with the British Film Institute to form an independently-run centre for the performing arts based in a disused power station.

According to Bishop, the complex could house not only the Theatre Museum’s collections and those of the British Film Institute, but also records and artefacts from of other performing arts, including opera, ballet and circus.

He has recommended two potential sites for such a project - the Commonwealth Institute in Kensington and the disused power station in the Thames Gateway at Greenwich.

The news comes shortly after the Theatre Museum’s parent institution the Victoria and Albert Museum confirmed it was in talks with the Royal Opera House to construct plans that would keep the museum in its Covent Garden base. ROH executive director Tony Hall has confirmed that details of the proposed partnership to save the museum will be revealed in September.

It is expected that any moves to relocate the Theatre Museum outside London’s West End would be resisted by the theatre community, which has campaigned fiercely to retain the institution at its current site in the heart of Theatreland.