APPENDIX 13
Memorandum submitted by the British Museum
PROJECT OUTLINE
The Great Court project brings into public use,
for the first time for 150 years, the classical 2-acre courtyard
which lies at the heart of the British Museum. A new cultural
square for London is created, covered in with a delicate steel
and glass roof, giving substantially improved access to the Museum
and providing new exhibitions, new shops and restaurants and improved
visitor facilities. Below the courtyard a new Education Centre,
including two lecture theatres, and permanent galleries for the
Museum's African collections are provided. The famous Round Reading
Room is restored in its original form and will be open as a public
reference library for the first time in its history. It will also
hold the Museum's multi-media system (COMPASS) giving in-depth
access to the Museum's collections. The Great Court will be open
from 9 am to 9 pm, with an 11 pm closure on Thursdays, Fridays
and Saturdays (6 pm on Sundays).
The British Museum is the UK's oldest national
museum (and is an NDPB with charitable status). The Museum is
the client for the project and has itself undertaken project management,
using construction management as the procurement route.
The British Museum's collections cover the 8
millennia of civilisation. Museum projects, by the very nature
of them being places of history, are very appropriate as Millennium
projects; and the British Museum's year 2000 project also juxtaposes
well as part of its plan to have an improved site for its own
quarter-millennium anniversary in 2003.
ROLE OF
MILLENNIUM COMMISSION
The Museum received a £30 million grant
from the Millennium Commission. Their funding decision was based
on the opportunity to create a vibrant public square. Administration
and monitoring by the Commission has been balanced and co-operative
and the relationship has worked well from the Museum's viewpoint.
PROJECT BUDGET
When the project was first put to the Millennium
Commission a then current price budget of £59.8 million was
identified, together with a separate figure of £6 million
for the Reading Room and COMPASS. During the several months of
discussion on this submission a preference emerged for glass,
rather than a substitute, to be used in the roof construction.
This, with some other adjustments, brought a total of £68.6
million which, with inflation then allowed, gave a forecast actual
expenditure of £94.1 million.
It was against the £94.1 million total
that the £30 million grant was awarded. No supplementary
grant has been sought.
With some subsequent additions to the scope
of the project, the current forecast outturn stands at £100.9
million. A total of £107.7 million has been raised (see breakdown
attached); surpluses are being allocated to separate Museum building
projects.
The main changes to the project budget are explained
above.
PROJECT TIMETABLE
The Museum's plan at the time of the submission
to the Millennium Commission was to complete by November 2000.
The Great Court will be opened in early December
2000.
LONG-TERM
VIABILITY
Prospects for long-term viability are excellent.
Visitors to the Museum are historically in the 5-6 million range
and, by its very location, all will use the Great Court. Numbers
can be expected to increase given the improved access and visitor
comfort provided. The new trading spaces (not only from shops
and restaurants but also from the special exhibition gallery,
from the lecture theatres and from the multi-media systems) are
targeted to produce profits to contribute substantially to the
running costs of the Great Court; savings from restructuring other
Museum budgets cover the balance.
BRITISH MUSEUM—GREAT COURT
Funding
| Benefactors |
Amount
£'000 |
| The Millennium Commission | 30,000
|
| Garfield Weston Foundation | 20,100
|
| National Heritage Memorial Fund | 15,750
|
| The Annenberg Foundation | 6,500
|
| British Museum Company Ltd | 5,000
|
| D Sainsbury (Gatsby Trust) | 4,000
|
| Interest on Surplus Funds | 3,774
|
| The Clore Foundation | 2,500
|
| Sir Joseph Hotung (The Hotung Millennium Gallery)
| 2,000 |
| Asahi Shimbun (Japanese Foundation) | 1,552
|
| Donald P Kahn | 1,500 |
| Mr Peter Moores | 1,500 |
| BP AMOCO (BP Theatre) | 1,500
|
| The Kresge Foundation | 1,212
|
| The Henry Moore Foundation | 1,050
|
| The Monument Trust | 1,000 |
| Mr Hugh and Mrs Catherine Stevenson | 1,000
|
| Paul Hamlyn Foundation (Hamlyn Library) |
900 |
| Dr Raymond and Mrs Beverley Sackler | 616
|
| The Headley Trust (Sir Timothy & Lady Sainsbury)
| 500 |
| British Museum Society | 500
|
| Mrs Deborah Loeb Brice | 440
|
| The Equitable Charitable Trust (Children's Activity Room)
| 400 |
| Miscellaneous Donations—BM | 353
|
| The John S Cohen Foundation | 250
|
| GEC | 250 |
| John Duffield | 250 |
| BP (Management Support) | 250
|
| Lord Weinstock | 200 |
| The Trust House Charitable Foundation | 200
|
| Miscellaneous gifts to British Museum Dev Trust
| 185 |
| The Harold W Goldsmith Foundation | 184
|
| Schroder Charity Trust | 153
|
| Weldon UK Charitable Trust | 120
|
| Fidelity Foundation of Boston | 104
|
| Eugene & Clare Thaw | 104
|
| The Rayne Foundation | 100 |
| James Fairfax | 100 |
| Dr & Mrs Gad Rausing | 100
|
| The Coral Samuel Charitable Trust | 100
|
| The John Ellerman Foundation | 100
|
| Mr Harry M Weinrebe | 100 |
| Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation | 100
|
| Total individual donations under £100,000
| 1,124 |
| Total Funding | 107,722 |
May 2000
|
|
|
