National Museums Liverpool (NML) has secured Objective 1 funds of £7.5m towards a new waterfront museum.
The proposed Museum of Liverpool, which will replace the Museum of Liverpool Life, was originally part of Will Alsop's Cloud project at the Pier Head. These plans collapsed last July, and the new museum looked unlikely to go ahead.
But it has now been approved subject to formal application. It will cost £65m and will be built on NML's own land at Mann Island close to the Cloud site.
The Objective 1 funds comprise £2.5m for pre-development costs and £5m towards the building, and will lever in £2.5m from the North West Development Agency (NWDA), which had backed the original museum plan.
A further £30m earmarked for the Cloud project by NWDA remains unspent. NML awaits a decision on whether this will be transferred to the new museum, and will also be applying to other funding bodies, including HLF, for the remainder.
David Fleming, the director of NML, told Museums Journal: 'The Cloud was always high risk, and its demise was not wholly unexpected.' He said NML's job had been to try to ensure that the museum element of the Fourth Grace did not fall along with the rest of the scheme.
'What people need to realise is that while other elements of the Fourth Grace were aborted, the museum never was, so in that respect it is wrong to perceive the scheme as "new".'
The new building, designed by Danish architects 3XN, will be five times the size of the existing museum and aims to have 80 per cent of its space accessible to the public. 'We will be telling Liverpool's story in a city history museum which, in terms of world city history museums, will be on an unprecedented scale,' said Janet Dugdale, the keeper of social history at the Museum of Liverpool Life .
Dugdale said that the new museum would have galleries created through involvement with local people, a resource centre and community, learning and social facilities.
So far, 3XN's proposal takes the form of two low-rise crossing wings in white stone which slope down to the promenade.
It will have four floors with views out to the river and city. 'We knew it was a sensitive site,' said architect Kim Nielsen. 'We didn't want to fight the Three Graces, and we didn't want it to be too urban, though it has references to the old shipyards and sculpted ship shapes when seen from the river.'
The proposed Museum of Liverpool, which will replace the Museum of Liverpool Life, was originally part of Will Alsop's Cloud project at the Pier Head. These plans collapsed last July, and the new museum looked unlikely to go ahead.
But it has now been approved subject to formal application. It will cost £65m and will be built on NML's own land at Mann Island close to the Cloud site.
The Objective 1 funds comprise £2.5m for pre-development costs and £5m towards the building, and will lever in £2.5m from the North West Development Agency (NWDA), which had backed the original museum plan.
A further £30m earmarked for the Cloud project by NWDA remains unspent. NML awaits a decision on whether this will be transferred to the new museum, and will also be applying to other funding bodies, including HLF, for the remainder.
David Fleming, the director of NML, told Museums Journal: 'The Cloud was always high risk, and its demise was not wholly unexpected.' He said NML's job had been to try to ensure that the museum element of the Fourth Grace did not fall along with the rest of the scheme.
'What people need to realise is that while other elements of the Fourth Grace were aborted, the museum never was, so in that respect it is wrong to perceive the scheme as "new".'
The new building, designed by Danish architects 3XN, will be five times the size of the existing museum and aims to have 80 per cent of its space accessible to the public. 'We will be telling Liverpool's story in a city history museum which, in terms of world city history museums, will be on an unprecedented scale,' said Janet Dugdale, the keeper of social history at the Museum of Liverpool Life .
Dugdale said that the new museum would have galleries created through involvement with local people, a resource centre and community, learning and social facilities.
So far, 3XN's proposal takes the form of two low-rise crossing wings in white stone which slope down to the promenade.
It will have four floors with views out to the river and city. 'We knew it was a sensitive site,' said architect Kim Nielsen. 'We didn't want to fight the Three Graces, and we didn't want it to be too urban, though it has references to the old shipyards and sculpted ship shapes when seen from the river.'
