Town Hall scores £2m for Hackney Museum revamp

Design ideas for the new museum. Image: GUM Studios / Hackney Council

Hackney Council has won over £2m in grant funding for a “once-in a generation” redevelopment of its community history museum.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded the local authority with £2,241,216 for the upgrade, which includes plans for a new reception area, permanent and temporary exhibitions, event and teaching spaces, and more.

The four-year project will mean the museum will be closed to the public from late 2025 until early 2027.

Mayor Caroline Woodley hailed the “fantastic news” for the centre, which has “been telling the borough’s incredible stories for nearly 40 years”.

The borough’s culture chief, Cllr Chris Kennedy, added: “The new displays will be imaginative, interactive and immersive, with opportunities for hands-on learning and play.

“This transformation will ensure Hackney Museum can continue to be a vital place for communities, education and inspiration for all residents, and a place for visitors from all over the world to come and find out more about Hackney’s histories.”

The institute’s new designs have been developed by GUM Studios, who have previously worked on other cultural centres like the Garden Museum, The William Morris Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery.

First established in 1986, Hackney Museum is home to a collection of over 8,500 objects, artworks, images and oral history recordings.

A new permanent exhibition is to highlight how the borough has been “shaped by 300,000 years of migration and settlement”.

It will also showcase the borough’s long history of community solidarity and activism – alongside artefacts like the remains of an Anglo-Saxon oak logboat discovered in Springfield Park in 1987.

The borough’s Paleolithic era will also be brought to life by the display of the bone fragments of a straight-tusked elephant, unearthed from Stoke Newington’s Evering Road in 1960.

A council spokesperson said the museum teams had sought input from the centre’s “priority audiences”, such as local community groups and organisations.

100 residents across 10 focus groups were asked their views, and staff also held 16 discussion interviews with people from various demographics, including the teachers and parents of special needs pupils.

Their ideas for permanent exhibitions “have already been included and embedded in the design”, the spokesperson said.

The revamped museum will also include a ‘Platform’ space which will host exhibitions from local groups, chosen by a Community Advisory Panel made up of volunteers.

Dubbed ‘Your Hackney’, this call for display or project ideas from the public will reopen for applications in the autumn.

National Lottery Heritage Fund director for London, Stuart McLeod, said the “transformational project” is a “once-in-a-generation redevelopment that will ensure that the borough’s heritage is brought to life in innovative ways, representing the diverse cultures and stories of its community”.

The grant funding will also create temporary job roles to help deliver the redevelopment, but the council spokesperson said that upon completion the museum’s team will return to its “core structure”.

However, “there will be ongoing opportunities at the museum for local people in both skills development and volunteer capacities”.