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Summerlee, Scotland's museum of industrial life, is set to reopen for the summer 2008 season following a major £10 million redevelopment. Funding for the redevelopment has come from a number of sources, including nearly £5m from the Heritage Lottery Fund and contributions from the Scottish Museums Council, the European Regional Development Fund, North Lanarkshire Council and a number of charitable trusts and private individuals.
The museum, graded as a 4-star attraction by VisitScotland, is currently closed while the main hall is being rebuilt and new landscaping and car parking works undertaken.
The main exhibition hall has been completely stripped out and a ground-up refurbishment is now underway. The original hall, created in the late 1980s out of the site of the former Hydrocon Crane works, provided a superb space for the museum's collection of industrial machinery, much of which could be seen in working condition. However, over the past 20 years, the displays and general visitor experience had become in need of a thorough upgrade.
From 2008 Summerlee will be set to take its place as a landmark heritage facility for the 21st Century. The new hall will provide a modern and environmentally sustainable setting for some of Scotland's most important displays of social and industrial history, including many 'star' items from the collection hitherto hidden from view in the stores.
The new setting will also provide the visitor with a much more logical flow through the displays, moving from the pre-historical period to the dawn and rise of the industrial era and into Lanarkshire's massive contribution to Scottish - and world - engineering. Interactive displays will explain the iron-making process and a kid's Discovery Zone will allow youngsters to explore the world of science through hands-on activities and simple experiments.
VB Contracts have been responsible for all of the brickwork on the site.
