Sometimes we all fancy reinventing ourselves a bit. This might mean heading back to the gym, changing careers, or even just trying out a new haircut. Museums don’t have the option to just try out a fringe, so when they’re due a makeover, it tends to be big.
On Liverpool’s Royal Albert Dock sit the International Slavery Museum and the Maritime Museum, both of which are overdue for some renovations. This year, work will begin to renovate parts of both museums, which are housed inside the same former warehouse named the Hartley Pavilion. A near-£60 million will go towards updating not only the pavilion but the Martin Luther King Jr (MLK) building, which sits across from it.
The plans would see the International Slavery Museum expanded into the MLK building, allowing it to have an entrance of its own. Liverpool had strong ties to the Atlantic slave trade, being a significant port city in the eighteenth century. According to National Museums Liverpool (NML), this expansion will ‘create a much stronger, physical presence on the waterfront, symbolising the city’s commitment to addressing its ties to the transatlantic slave trade, and framing how visitors understand the history of the docks and the built environment surrounding them.’
The museums are working closely with black communities and victims of modern-slavery in the city, in an effort to allow this story to be told by those who it affects the most.
Laura Pye, director of NML, explained: ‘There has never been a more important time to address the legacies of transatlantic slavery and the redevelopment of the International Slavery Museum symbolises our, and our region’s, commitment to confronting the significant role the city played in British imperialism.’
The renovations will be managed by architectural firm Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, which have previously worked with NML to create the original plans for the waterfront redesign five years ago.
Kossy Nnachetta, who is leading the project for the firm, discussed the importance of the project: ‘We understand that there is huge responsibility to help create a platform to tell this story, long whispered, yet still awaiting the space to fully express itself; and all the potent, deep-seated emotions it can elicit.’
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