The first phase of the new Kelvin Hall development is taking shape and on target for completion in June next year.

With over 100 construction staff currently working on the development the former Glasgow sports arena is being transformed into one of the biggest museum and academic research centres in the UK.

When Phase 1 is completed it will unite several national organisations under the one roof, including

  • The University of Glasgow, which will offer new Post Graduate courses and state-of-the-art research and study areas
  • The Hunterian, which will house its new collection storage, study and research facilities, with storage and exhibition space for more than 1.5 million items, many of which have never been displayed
  • Glasgow Museums, with 400,000 objects, and Glasgow Sports
  • The National Libraries of Scotland, which will move the Scottish Screen Archive to its new Kelvin Hall home

Kelvin Hall

With Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery across the road and the nearby Riverside Museum the vision is for Glasgow’s west end to become a cultural corridor from the Clyde to Kelvingrove for academia and tourism, to rival South Kensington in London which is home to the V&A, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum.

Professor Murray Pittock, Pro Vice-Principal of the University of Glasgow, said: “Kelvin Hall is a hugely exciting and unique project which brings together for the first time anywhere in the world civic organisations, higher education and national organisations under one roof.

“It has already attracted interest from a wide range of partners across the world from Christie’s Education, via the Re-Enlightenment project based in New York but with hubs in Cambridge and now London, to the Smithsonian, which is holding a day long open event on Glasgow-Smithsonian links in Washington DC on October 27.

He added: “Kelvin Hall will help students wanting to study at the University of Glasgow to engage through the many objects housed at Kelvin Hall, it will enable post graduate students to train using direct access to collections and the new digital portal, with more than 200,000 images which can be utilised for research purposes. It will be a world leading facility and is excellence available to all.”

Landmark

When Phase 1 of the development is completed in June, Kelvin Hall will officially open in September 2016 ready for the new student intake.

The planned Phase 2 of Kelvin Hall will turn the 16,000sq metres hall, which once housed the former Transport Museum, into the new Hunterian together with innovative developments from other civic and national partners. With a completion date set for 2020, phase 2 will transform the Glasgow landmark into one of the premier cultural venues in the UK.

The Kelvin Hall development partners and financial supporters include the University of Glasgow, Hunterian, Glasgow Life Museums and Sport, National Library Scotland with support from Scottish Government, Heritage Lottery Fund, Historic Scotland and Glasgow City Council.

First published: 5 October 2015

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