A RADICAL revamp of one of Glasgow's landmark buildings has received a major boost with funding from the lottery worth more than £4.5 million.
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) will today announce ambitious plans to redevelop the Kelvin Hall, the former home for sport and the Museum of Transport, into a museum, gallery, sport and cultural centre, has received the grant.
Kelvin Hall will become the new museum for the internationally recognised Hunterian collections of Glasgow University, as well as a home for many items from the Glasgow Museums collections, as well as a centre for teaching and research and fitness centre.
Around 1.5 million objects, currently stored in various locations in the city, will be relocated to the new facility, and the building, opposite the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, will eventually become home to the Hunterian Collections Study Centre, the university will confirm today.
With the Kelvingrove across the road, and the Riverside Museum nearby, the council believes the west end of Glasgow could rival South Kensington in London - home of the V&A, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum - as a cultural hub for tourism and academia.
The new museum, gallery and store is to be created in two phases, at a total cost, it is believed, of £60m.
The first phase - transforming a large part of the building into a joint collections and study centre - is planned to be completed by the end of 2016, while the second stage, creating new public galleries and special exhibition and education spaces, would be completed by 2020.
The new museum and gallery will also contain the only surviving complete suite of interiors by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, carried out for Mrs Cranston's Ingram Street tearooms, as well as the majority of the Hunterian collection, which was built on Dr William Hunter's founding bequest and first opened in 1807.
The National Library of Scotland's Scottish Screen Archive will also be given a new home, giving the public access to more than 100 years of Scottish history on film and video.
Kelvin Hall was built in 1926/27 to house large-scale exhibitions. It was designed by the Scottish architect Thomas Gilchrist Gilmour.
Colin McLean, head of the HLF in Scotland, said: "The Kelvin Hall is a hugely popular building, much loved by the people of Glasgow and beyond so it is fitting the lottery-playing public have had a hand in securing its future. This is a groundbreaking project that brings together civic, university and national heritage collections for the first time in the UK."
Archie Graham, deputy leader of Glasgow City Council and chairman of Glasgow Life, which runs the city's museums said: "This ambitious project will breathe new life into what is already a vibrant museums quarter with Kelvingrove, the Hunterian and Riverside museums nearby."
Professor Anton Muscatelli, principal of Glasgow University, said the plan will "enable the university to provide a truly sustainable solution for improved collections care, access and learning opportunities, expanding our capacity for collections research, teaching, training and public engagement".
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