Preston Park Museum

Preston Park Museum

As well as the restoration of the building, including re-roofing, re-pointing and stonework cleaning and repair, we have remodelled the interiors to improve access and create gallery spaces that are more suitable for modern museum use.

The visitor flow through the museum has been redesigned with a continual progression designed from one room to another. New openings have been created on the ground floor, while on the upper floor, removal of corridor access is a significant intervention to the building fabric, creating a series of interconnected rooms.

Access within the building has also been improved with the creation of new stairs and insertion of lifts. The improvement of M+E systems has also been key to the project with new services designed to sit sensitively and almost invisibly within the historic rooms.

To achieve this, we worked closely with the exhibition designers whilst detailing the architectural changes and M+E to ensure a coherent and integrated approach to the new design. All exhibitions have been redesigned and a small number of new galleries created.

The Victorian Street

Stepping over the backwards ticking clock set into the floor takes visitors out of the Mansion and into the replica Victorian Street. Buttress renovated some of the existing shops and created a brand new sweet shop and cafe to increase the commercial revenue of the redeveloped museum. The cafe is housed in one of the historic shops and enhances the vibrancy of the street scene.

The Victorian Walled Garden

A separate commission, running concurrent to the museum refurbishment, was the repair and redevelopment of the former walled kitchen garden and orchard.

The garden has been redesigned to the style of a kitchen garden of 1895, which is in keeping with the date of the museum, and is open to the public as part of the full museum offer.

Architectural elements such as a Bothy and new glasshouses have been reintroduced alongside new sections of wall to complete the development works.