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shimshimshim Relocation 2011 - 2012
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shim Proposed plan shim
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Moving the archives and museum
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The Archives and Museum at Bethlem Royal Hospital will be moving in 2012 to Wakefield House North on the same site.

The project involves extending the new building laterally and vertically, fitting out the ground floor to accept the archives, and designing and fitting out a museum on the first floor.

Click here to download PDF plans of The Relocation Project

Why we need to move

The requirement

In driving forward its aim of raising mental health awareness and combating stigma, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust requires the Archives and Museum to provide an expanded service. Visitor figures, the success of external exhibitions and the growth of the education and outreach programme have demonstrated that there is increasing demand both locally and nationally for the services of the country’s sole full-time archives and museum of mental health.

The present building


The present Archives and Museum building is steadily deteriorating with visible cracks on all sides. Without major and costly remedial action it will soon reach the end of its capability.

Archive capacity

Our archives are continuous since 1559. We have now run out of space.

The increasing demand for Archives and Museum services

Our visitor figures have dramatically expanded in the past five years:

2003-2004

Comparitor

2007-2008

Under 1,000

On-site visitors

2,184

5,000

Off-site visitors

85,072

2

School groups

45

Because we can display only 45 of our 963 works of psychiatric art on site we meet this increasing demand by loan exhibitions. We badly need more display space on site.

Crampted Conditions

Crampted Conditions

Cramped conditions inside the archives and museum.


The solution

Wakefield House North, a building on the same site, originally built to house the operating theatre of the Bethlem Medical School in 1930. When the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospitals joined in 1948 it became a laboratory. Since the laboratory closed it has been used for a decade as temporary storage.

Wakefield House South Wakefield House South         

Wakefield House North
Wakefield House North

   Advantages         

  • Sound, dry and secure. Extension and restructuring will require substantial alteration, some demolition and reconstruction. 
  • Using the existing ground floor to construct a purpose-built archive will meet the National Archives concerns of future capacity, reading rooms for researchers, and a conservation facility.
  • A new first floor for Wakefield House North has been granted planning consent to provide the required space for the museum service with a central display area, further display rooms off, and space for items presently stored off-site.
  • The present necessity for an Education Room in a separate building will be solved by a permanently equipped integral education facility.
  • Proportionately more of the costs would be spent on constructing and fitting out a purpose-built archive and museum than on stabilising a decaying building.
  • Situated on the main thoroughfare of the site, the archives and museum would arouse more interest and generate more visitors.

Planning Consent

In 2008 a planning consent was obtained to extend Wakefield House North laterally, by squaring off the building, and vertically by constructing a first floor to match the existing first floor of Wakefield House South.

Project Timetable

Jul 2009 - Apr 2010

Business case and fundraising preparation.

Apr 2010 - Mar 2011
Fundraising and design work

May - Aug 2011

Tendering

Aug 2011

Tender decided

Aug 2011 - Aug 2012

Build and install services

Aug - Sep 2012

Commissioning

Sep - Dec 2012

Move archives and museum

Dec 2012

Staff preparation

Jan 2013

Opening

30 Oct 2013

Formal opening

The present Archives and Museum will remain open until the end of September 2012. We shall then close and move, re-opening in our new home in January 2013.

Project Team

Steering Group Chairman

J Michael Phillips
BA MSocSc FCMI AMA

Head of Archives and Museum

Programme Director

Clive Baker
BSc FRICS

SLaM Capital Programme Director

Planning Manager Janine Roberts SLaM Capital Planning

Project Manager

James Bannon

SLaM Capital planning

Archives consultant

Colin Gale
BA(Hons) MPhil DipAA RMSA

Archivist

Museum Designer

 

Real Studios

Architect, Lead consultant, Building Surveyor, Engineers

Baily-Garner Ltd
Michael Bennett BSc APMP MRICS

146-148 Eltham Hill
London SE9 5DY

Quantity Surveyor

Peter Solari LLB FRICS FCIArb
PSP Construction Consultants

5 Godstone Road
Caterham, CR3 6RE

Fundraising Management

Development Partners UK Ltd
 (PoC: Judy Niner)

Park Farm Technology Centre, Kirtlington
Oxon, OX5 3JQ

Historical Consultant

Dr Sarah Rutherford

Author: 'Victorian Asylums'

Funding The Project

Subject to detailed costings, the project is estimated at £3,000,000, of which £2,000,000 has already been raised

The project has the positive support of South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

Head of Archives and Museum Michael Phillips; Chair of Trustees Baroness Murphy; Chief Executive South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust Stuart Bell

Head of Archives and Museum Michael Phillips; Chair of Trustees Baroness Murphy; Chief Executive South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust Stuart Bell

 

If you would like to help us raise the remaining £2,000,000, please contact Michael Phillips, Head of Archives and Museum on jmichael.phillips@slam.nhs.uk or 020 3228 4307 / 4227.

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shimArchives and Museum Bethlem Royal Hospital | Monks Orchard Road | Beckenham| Kent BR3 3BX
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