British Museum Conservation & Exhibitions Centre

Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP) won a competition in 2007 to design new facilities aimed at significantly improving and enhancing the British Museum’s existing infrastructure by providing a new special exhibitions gallery of 1,200m² as well as state-of-the-art conservation studios and science laboratories, storage areas for its study collection and facilities to support its extensive UK and international loans programme across a total area of approximately 18,000 m². The design for the £135 million development was given planning approval by Camden Council in December 2009. When finished in 2013, the development will help to ensure that the Museum can meet its present and future obligations to the collection and to its visitors for many years to come.

Located in Bloomsbury, London - a conservation area - the Museum has a rich architectural heritage and the site has developed and grown at each stage of its history. The majority of the structures on the museum site are listed. This development will transform an under-utilised section of the site in the north-west corner of the Museum, situated adjacent to the impressive King Edward VII Building which was completed in 1914.