Details of the new permanent exhibition planned for the National Railway Museum’s Station Hall, including concept designs for York’s former goods station have been released.
Created by exhibition designers Drinkall Dean, the images provide an early view of how Station Hall’s new exhibition will look once it opens to the public in 2024.
The new exhibition will transform and enhance the visitor experience with new stories, objects and interpretation while retaining many of the hall’s much-loved features and atmosphere.
The exhibition has four main themes which guide visitors through the space. ‘The Station is a World In Itself’ will explore the unique landscape, rules and experiences of the station. In this theme the museum’s Waterloo Station WHSmith bookstall kiosk will be displayed for the first time, following an extensive restoration process.
The second theme ‘Innovation, Influence and Inspiration’ will display the museum’s collection of six royal carriages alongside new interpretation and imagery to tell the stories of the impact of royals travelling by rail.
‘Work and Play’ will show visitors how stations became the starting point for journeys that transformed the way people work, play and live today as rail travel became widespread and more affordable. This will include the museum’s LMS sleeper carriage, Midland Railway dining carriage and reproductions from the museum’s collection of railway travel posters.
The final theme ‘The Goods Life’ will reference Station Hall’s past working life as a busy freight station and will focus on the often-hidden elements of the railways that helped shape modern life. Objects in this section will include a fish van, a banana van and a prosthetic leg issued by the Great Western Railway to Harold Jarvis—a member of staff who was injured in a shunting accident.
Joe Randall, Interpretation Developer at the National Railway Museum, said:
“Station Hall will immerse visitors in an historic railway landscape, surrounded by the diverse, inspiring and powerful stories of real people and the tangible assets that illustrate them. The space will feel alive and encourage people to relate their own experiences to those of people from the past to create meaningful connections.
“We want to keep the atmosphere of the station that people love but enhance the experience with more stories and collection items. The new themes and stories will give context to the space and help visitors to explore our unique collection for themselves.”
The exhibition will feature archive films with projection and shorter clips appearing throughout the gallery interpretation to help illustrate themes and stories. On display will also be new large-scale reproductions of photographs from the museum’s collection to capture the feel of each section and the hall will receive a new and improved lighting scheme.
It will also include oral histories from real people who tell their stories in their own words whether it is memories of lost property, life working on the railways or the experience of working on the royal train.
The exhibition has received significant funding from the Friends of the National Railway Museum.
Alongside Station Hall’s exhibition, the Grade II-listed building is also receiving a £10.5m programme of conservation and repair works which includes replacing the roof. Funded by DCMS (Department for Culture Media and Sport) from the Public Bodies Infrastructure Fund, the National Railway Museum has recently appointed John Graham Construction Ltd as principal contractor to work with conservation architects Buttress to deliver the programme of works.
Before roof work could begin, the museum’s conservation team worked with scaffolding contractors 3D Scaffolding to create bespoke wrapping and protective platforms for many of the museum’s royal carriages. This is enabling work to take place above them without endangering the carriages below.
As part of the plans, Station Hall’s café will also reopen following the modernisation and expansion of the kitchen, venue hire will resume and the award-winning afternoon tea venue ‘Countess of York’ will reopen in an authentic railway carriage inside the hall.
Ends
For more information please contact:
- Simon Baylis, PR & Press Manager, 01904 686 299, Simon.baylis@railwaymuseum.org.uk
- Brittany Noppe, Senior Press Officer, 01274 203356, brittany.noppe@railwaymuseum.org.uk
A media pack of new design images can be downloaded here: https://we.tl/t-WL5fR2k3W8
About the National Railway Museum
The National Railway Museum in York has the largest collection of railway objects in the world and is the most visited free attraction in the region, receiving more than 572,577 visitors in 2022.
The collection includes including more than 260 locomotives and rolling stock, thousands of railway objects, and over 1.75 million documents, photographs and artwork in its archives.
The National Railway Museum forms part of the Science Museum Group, along with the Science Museum in London, the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, Locomotion in Shildon, and the National Collections Centre in Wiltshire.
Admission to the National Railway Museum is free, although visitors are encouraged to book in advance, visit: www.railwaymuseum.org.uk
About the Friends of the National Railway Museum
The Friends of the National Railway Museum was formed in 1977 to support the National Railway Museum. An independent member based charity, FNRM (or the Friends) help to fund the restoration of exhibits in the National Collection, the acquisition of new artefacts, and other projects that would otherwise not be possible.
The charity also undertakes and supports research and educational projects relating to the history and development of railways.
