Time and Tide Museum of Great Yarmouth Life, Norfolk
Ewan MacColl's evocative Shoals of Herring ballad should be the theme tune of Time and Tide, a new museum that promises 'Great Times, Great Lives, Great Stories' on its posters fighting for space along Great Yarmouth's promotion-strewn seafront.
The museum, like the song, is a story of triumph over adversity, a 15-year struggle to turn a derelict fish-curing works into a social history museum.
Yarmouth seems a schizophrenic sort of place. Its history as a port is apparent along South Quay but only a few streets away is the razzamatazz of Marine Parade, one of the major UK holiday resorts and now the town's economic base.
The two attract different audiences in vastly contrasting numbers. Time and Tide directly replaces the Maritime Museum for East Anglia, which used to be housed in a former seamen's mission on the seafront: passed by millions but visited by rather less.
As part of the InteGreat regeneration initiative five agencies own or support six museums, historic buildings and an exhibition gallery. Nearby is a well-preserved section of the medieval town walls that runs close to the Tower Curing Works. But other than the quay itself, it lacked a focus, which Time and Tide now provides.
A 20-metre-tall mast, replicating in size and angle its sea-going counterparts, acts as museum emblem over the rooftops. The works form a group of listed redbrick courtyard buildings, facing inwards from the surrounding streets and with a single public entrance, providing a wonderful enclosed interpretation area.
The sea-going analogy is extended in the sail-like roof awnings that protect visitors and some historic boats in the courtyard. This only works partially, as the torrential downpours during my visit dramatically proved, but perhaps it merely extends even further the experience of working in the open on Yarmouth's herring drifters.
About half of the available 2,500 sq metre floor area is devoted to gallery space, in a cleverly devised sequence on two floors. Audio guides are included in the admission charge. The well-stocked shop is sensibly planned into an integrated reception and the cafe is well sited off the courtyard and pitched at the right level, not only for museum visitors but local and passing trade.
Great Yarmouth is famous for its 'Rows': more than 145 tightly packed narrow alleyways between houses that run east-west alongside the river and the sea. World War Two bombing decimated what would have been a landscape of national importance.
The museum tour starts in a reconstructed Row from 1913, with six object-rich room settings depicting the lifestyle of local people. There's some competition here between audio guides and the accompanying information books, which needs sorting out, but the display makes a strong start to the visit.
This is followed by a 1950s recreated fish wharf, towards the end of the herring fishing's boom years; but the chief exhibit on the ground floor must be the salt store and steeps associated with the fish curing and smoking process. The authentic smell lingers in the recreated herring store with 12,000 hanging replica specimens.
Eight first-floor galleries are presented thematically, allowing the full expression of the museum collections, drawn from the predecessor museum and from the Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service as a whole.
Good use is made of video: the headsets are effective, with the right sound levels throughout. The Town that Grew Out of the Sea shows an archaeological sequence of the greater Yarmouth area, and Wreck and Rescue is self-explanatory and has strong storylines. In Beside the Seaside, Yarmouth's development as a seaside resort is well handled and the economic and trading history of the town is well presented.
A Century of Change works well in assessing the effects of bombing during the war and flooding on the town's citizens and seafarers, plus more recent history. There is an education room and a good store has been created for smaller on-site collections.
Is it all sustainable? As the third largest museum in Norfolk it should be well supported. The annual visitor target is an achievable 25,000, and the new museum will undoubtedly lead to a range of the outreach activities.
In terms of regeneration, I was left with a feeling that such flagship provision in the midst of a multi-occupier high deprivation community would not change much in itself, unless it is by encouraging some improved sense of belonging.
There is a real opportunity to draw out the sense of place which many local people must still feel about their battered old town. One note on the message board made this point: 'How wonderful to have all our history under one roof; for the first time in ages, I feel proud to be a Yarmouth girl.'
David Viner is a museum and heritage consultant and a freelance curator and writer
Ewan MacColl's evocative Shoals of Herring ballad should be the theme tune of Time and Tide, a new museum that promises 'Great Times, Great Lives, Great Stories' on its posters fighting for space along Great Yarmouth's promotion-strewn seafront.
The museum, like the song, is a story of triumph over adversity, a 15-year struggle to turn a derelict fish-curing works into a social history museum.
Yarmouth seems a schizophrenic sort of place. Its history as a port is apparent along South Quay but only a few streets away is the razzamatazz of Marine Parade, one of the major UK holiday resorts and now the town's economic base.
The two attract different audiences in vastly contrasting numbers. Time and Tide directly replaces the Maritime Museum for East Anglia, which used to be housed in a former seamen's mission on the seafront: passed by millions but visited by rather less.
As part of the InteGreat regeneration initiative five agencies own or support six museums, historic buildings and an exhibition gallery. Nearby is a well-preserved section of the medieval town walls that runs close to the Tower Curing Works. But other than the quay itself, it lacked a focus, which Time and Tide now provides.
A 20-metre-tall mast, replicating in size and angle its sea-going counterparts, acts as museum emblem over the rooftops. The works form a group of listed redbrick courtyard buildings, facing inwards from the surrounding streets and with a single public entrance, providing a wonderful enclosed interpretation area.
The sea-going analogy is extended in the sail-like roof awnings that protect visitors and some historic boats in the courtyard. This only works partially, as the torrential downpours during my visit dramatically proved, but perhaps it merely extends even further the experience of working in the open on Yarmouth's herring drifters.
About half of the available 2,500 sq metre floor area is devoted to gallery space, in a cleverly devised sequence on two floors. Audio guides are included in the admission charge. The well-stocked shop is sensibly planned into an integrated reception and the cafe is well sited off the courtyard and pitched at the right level, not only for museum visitors but local and passing trade.
Great Yarmouth is famous for its 'Rows': more than 145 tightly packed narrow alleyways between houses that run east-west alongside the river and the sea. World War Two bombing decimated what would have been a landscape of national importance.
The museum tour starts in a reconstructed Row from 1913, with six object-rich room settings depicting the lifestyle of local people. There's some competition here between audio guides and the accompanying information books, which needs sorting out, but the display makes a strong start to the visit.
This is followed by a 1950s recreated fish wharf, towards the end of the herring fishing's boom years; but the chief exhibit on the ground floor must be the salt store and steeps associated with the fish curing and smoking process. The authentic smell lingers in the recreated herring store with 12,000 hanging replica specimens.
Eight first-floor galleries are presented thematically, allowing the full expression of the museum collections, drawn from the predecessor museum and from the Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service as a whole.
Good use is made of video: the headsets are effective, with the right sound levels throughout. The Town that Grew Out of the Sea shows an archaeological sequence of the greater Yarmouth area, and Wreck and Rescue is self-explanatory and has strong storylines. In Beside the Seaside, Yarmouth's development as a seaside resort is well handled and the economic and trading history of the town is well presented.
A Century of Change works well in assessing the effects of bombing during the war and flooding on the town's citizens and seafarers, plus more recent history. There is an education room and a good store has been created for smaller on-site collections.
Is it all sustainable? As the third largest museum in Norfolk it should be well supported. The annual visitor target is an achievable 25,000, and the new museum will undoubtedly lead to a range of the outreach activities.
In terms of regeneration, I was left with a feeling that such flagship provision in the midst of a multi-occupier high deprivation community would not change much in itself, unless it is by encouraging some improved sense of belonging.
There is a real opportunity to draw out the sense of place which many local people must still feel about their battered old town. One note on the message board made this point: 'How wonderful to have all our history under one roof; for the first time in ages, I feel proud to be a Yarmouth girl.'
David Viner is a museum and heritage consultant and a freelance curator and writer
Project data
Cost: £4.7m
Funders: Heritage Lottery Fund £2.5m, EEDA £848,000, ERDF Objective 2 £707,000, SRB £528,000, Great Yarmouth Borough Council £100,000
Architect: Purcell Miller Tritton
Exhibition design@ Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service and John Kirk Designs
Contractor: John Youngs
Cost: £4.7m
Funders: Heritage Lottery Fund £2.5m, EEDA £848,000, ERDF Objective 2 £707,000, SRB £528,000, Great Yarmouth Borough Council £100,000
Architect: Purcell Miller Tritton
Exhibition design@ Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service and John Kirk Designs
Contractor: John Youngs
