Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport
The next time you plan to rearrange your museum's displays of flint arrowheads, Georgian shoe-buckles or portrait miniatures, consider yourself lucky that you do not have to work out how to display rather larger items; say a submarine or two.
Naturally, you are excused if your collection includes stuffed whales, locomotives, or aeroplanes, but otherwise be grateful it isn't you that has to deal with these huge things.
The Royal Navy Submarine Museum at Gosport, Hampshire, has just completed a £3.1m extension. It now has five craft to look after, although admittedly most of those may be considered on the small side as submarines go.
Many submarines are on display around the world, from Finland to Japan, and quite a few at various places in Britain. The Submarine Museum at Gosport has had HMS Alliance on show for about 20 years, perched uneasily just clear of the water on concrete pontoons.
After negotiating a display of naval weaponry in the entrance area, a visit to the museum begins with a tour of HMS Alliance led by a retired submariner. This submarine was finished at the very end of the second world war but not commissioned until 1947.
The 'old salt' who acts as the guide puts the frighteners on the visitors, young and old, as he shows off the cramped interior. From the shared, and frankly unappetising crew quarters, to the minute galley, where prodigious feats of catering expertise were performed to create crew meals at all times of the day and night, and on to the terrifying procedures for escaping from a stricken vessel in an emergency, the tour engenders respect for the stoicism of the men who served in these warships.
The sister ships of the silent service now displayed at Gosport include Holland 1 - the Royal Navy's oldest surviving submarine, dating from 1901 - and a new exhibit, X24.
Holland 1 is shown more or less 'as is' since it was rescued from the silty depths a mile or so off Eddystone Lighthouse in a salvage operation some 25 years ago. It was on its way to be broken up when it was lost in a storm in November 1913.
Like that other recovered hulk, the Tudor warship the Mary Rose, Holland 1 had spent more years under the ocean than it had in active use, and it required a great deal of complex conservation work.
Early conservation unfortunately ignored the corrosive chemicals deep within the metal of the hull, and instead concentrated on welding the three pieces of the hull back together.
After a further conservation campaign in 1998, which finally removed the chlorides from the sub's structure, a decision was taken to exhibit Holland 1 as a stabilised and conserved, but unrestored, hull with interpretative material shown on a newly created deck within.
Oddly, for a machine designed to operate at 100 per cent relative humidity under the water, Holland 1 is now displayed in a tightly controlled environment with humidity pegged at just 40 per cent.
The very latest sub to go on display at Gosport, X24, is the only surviving 'midget' submarine from the second world war. These particular craft were crewed by volunteers drawn from regular submarine crews, as missions were almost suicidal in their danger level; these midget submarines were basically submersible motorised bombs.
They were designed solely to penetrate the elaborate defences of enemy harbours and sink well-protected Axis warships at anchor. The timer devices used in the munitions theoretically allowed the crewmen a window of opportunity for escape back along the same route they had used to penetrate the defences, but the odds on death, injury, or capture were stacked heavily against the submariners.
Although described as a midget, X24 is still of considerable bulk, requiring an entire new building to contain both it and various other submarine-related material that the museum has either had in store or has been lent.
Some of these loans have been made possible because of the new building, which meets current museum standards of security and controlled environment and was designed by Robert Warren of RWCA architects.
Warren's building, which opened formally in September, after a running-in period of a month or so, is more than a little reminiscent of a submarine in external form. To harmonise with the new building, the earlier premises for Holland 1 have been reclad, though otherwise they remain unchanged.
The new building with its up-to-date standards in object presentation, security and conservation will allow the Submarine Museum to better develop and display its own holdings, and also to borrow from other lenders. It is named after Admiral Sir John Fieldhouse, the Royal Navy's senior submariner when he died in 1992.
Plans for future displays include exhibiting the museum's own submariner's Victoria Cross, which demands the highest security provision, and loans from other institutions and private individuals.
The new building is intended as a flexible venue with a large ground floor space for coping with the inevitable school groups and also - it is fervently hoped by the museum's fundraisers - to serve as a local magnet for corporate entertainment.
The upper part of the new building provides a display of the science and technology of submarines and their propulsion systems. School groups will be able to deal with these subjects, as appropriate, as well as with the historical story the submarines and other artefacts tell.
The upper display includes a lot of interactive hands-on exhibits - which were being given a thorough road-test by enthusiastic young visitors when I was there.
In case you have been adding up subs and find yourself a couple short, the other two on show are a German mini-submarine from the second world war, and a modern deep-sea rescue craft.
Navigation to reach the Submarine Museum is somewhat tortuous, as it is part of the former Naval Dockyard premises at Gosport, and therefore never intended to be a particularly easy destination for the general public.
Once you have negotiated the route, look out for the building that resembles a beached submarine. Or perhaps just look for HMS Alliance itself.
David Brady teaches at the New York University in London
Project data
Cost: £2.7m
Architect: RWCA
Exhibition design: David McCabe
Conservation: Ian Clark
Construction: Kier Group
The next time you plan to rearrange your museum's displays of flint arrowheads, Georgian shoe-buckles or portrait miniatures, consider yourself lucky that you do not have to work out how to display rather larger items; say a submarine or two.
Naturally, you are excused if your collection includes stuffed whales, locomotives, or aeroplanes, but otherwise be grateful it isn't you that has to deal with these huge things.
The Royal Navy Submarine Museum at Gosport, Hampshire, has just completed a £3.1m extension. It now has five craft to look after, although admittedly most of those may be considered on the small side as submarines go.
Many submarines are on display around the world, from Finland to Japan, and quite a few at various places in Britain. The Submarine Museum at Gosport has had HMS Alliance on show for about 20 years, perched uneasily just clear of the water on concrete pontoons.
After negotiating a display of naval weaponry in the entrance area, a visit to the museum begins with a tour of HMS Alliance led by a retired submariner. This submarine was finished at the very end of the second world war but not commissioned until 1947.
The 'old salt' who acts as the guide puts the frighteners on the visitors, young and old, as he shows off the cramped interior. From the shared, and frankly unappetising crew quarters, to the minute galley, where prodigious feats of catering expertise were performed to create crew meals at all times of the day and night, and on to the terrifying procedures for escaping from a stricken vessel in an emergency, the tour engenders respect for the stoicism of the men who served in these warships.
The sister ships of the silent service now displayed at Gosport include Holland 1 - the Royal Navy's oldest surviving submarine, dating from 1901 - and a new exhibit, X24.
Holland 1 is shown more or less 'as is' since it was rescued from the silty depths a mile or so off Eddystone Lighthouse in a salvage operation some 25 years ago. It was on its way to be broken up when it was lost in a storm in November 1913.
Like that other recovered hulk, the Tudor warship the Mary Rose, Holland 1 had spent more years under the ocean than it had in active use, and it required a great deal of complex conservation work.
Early conservation unfortunately ignored the corrosive chemicals deep within the metal of the hull, and instead concentrated on welding the three pieces of the hull back together.
After a further conservation campaign in 1998, which finally removed the chlorides from the sub's structure, a decision was taken to exhibit Holland 1 as a stabilised and conserved, but unrestored, hull with interpretative material shown on a newly created deck within.
Oddly, for a machine designed to operate at 100 per cent relative humidity under the water, Holland 1 is now displayed in a tightly controlled environment with humidity pegged at just 40 per cent.
The very latest sub to go on display at Gosport, X24, is the only surviving 'midget' submarine from the second world war. These particular craft were crewed by volunteers drawn from regular submarine crews, as missions were almost suicidal in their danger level; these midget submarines were basically submersible motorised bombs.
They were designed solely to penetrate the elaborate defences of enemy harbours and sink well-protected Axis warships at anchor. The timer devices used in the munitions theoretically allowed the crewmen a window of opportunity for escape back along the same route they had used to penetrate the defences, but the odds on death, injury, or capture were stacked heavily against the submariners.
Although described as a midget, X24 is still of considerable bulk, requiring an entire new building to contain both it and various other submarine-related material that the museum has either had in store or has been lent.
Some of these loans have been made possible because of the new building, which meets current museum standards of security and controlled environment and was designed by Robert Warren of RWCA architects.
Warren's building, which opened formally in September, after a running-in period of a month or so, is more than a little reminiscent of a submarine in external form. To harmonise with the new building, the earlier premises for Holland 1 have been reclad, though otherwise they remain unchanged.
The new building with its up-to-date standards in object presentation, security and conservation will allow the Submarine Museum to better develop and display its own holdings, and also to borrow from other lenders. It is named after Admiral Sir John Fieldhouse, the Royal Navy's senior submariner when he died in 1992.
Plans for future displays include exhibiting the museum's own submariner's Victoria Cross, which demands the highest security provision, and loans from other institutions and private individuals.
The new building is intended as a flexible venue with a large ground floor space for coping with the inevitable school groups and also - it is fervently hoped by the museum's fundraisers - to serve as a local magnet for corporate entertainment.
The upper part of the new building provides a display of the science and technology of submarines and their propulsion systems. School groups will be able to deal with these subjects, as appropriate, as well as with the historical story the submarines and other artefacts tell.
The upper display includes a lot of interactive hands-on exhibits - which were being given a thorough road-test by enthusiastic young visitors when I was there.
In case you have been adding up subs and find yourself a couple short, the other two on show are a German mini-submarine from the second world war, and a modern deep-sea rescue craft.
Navigation to reach the Submarine Museum is somewhat tortuous, as it is part of the former Naval Dockyard premises at Gosport, and therefore never intended to be a particularly easy destination for the general public.
Once you have negotiated the route, look out for the building that resembles a beached submarine. Or perhaps just look for HMS Alliance itself.
David Brady teaches at the New York University in London
Project data
Cost: £2.7m
Architect: RWCA
Exhibition design: David McCabe
Conservation: Ian Clark
Construction: Kier Group
