Memorandum submitted by Phil Reed, Director
the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms
PREFACE
This paper takes into account that the "Churchill
Project" comprised two phases: Phase 1, the creation of a
Learning and Conference Centre, reinstatement of previously hidden
historic rooms, installation of air conditioning and other plant
and the refurbishment of the Churchill Museum area to shell and
core; Phase 2: the creation of the Churchill Museum, ensuring
it knitted with the historic site and served the Learning and
other aspects of the Cabinet War Rooms (CWR) work and mission.
The whole project was funded from earned income (to some degree
"mortgaged") and donations from individuals, trusts
and firms.
The aim was to create a state of the art Learning
(or "Education" a word now less used, denoting a change
of approach) Suite, a conference suite for the in-house use, but
largely as an income generator for hire, and to house the infrastructure
required to service all these areas and the whole of the historic
site.
The Museum itself faced a number of challenges:
— The site is entirely underground
(a serious consideration in respect fire officer imposed limits
on numbers and of emergency evacuation).
— Its form, content and style had to
achieve certain agreed Learning Outcomes (researched before design
began).
— It had to engage and sustain interest
despite being obliged (as THE Churchill Museum) to be comprehensive
about a complex subject whose presentation risked numbing the
visitor.
QUESTIONS
1. Which aspects of the museum's building
layout are really successful with:
(a) children: the Learning Suite,
is located near to the entrance to the site, but because it has
only one toilet, this isn't used by the schools, as the queue
would be too large. The suite boasts rooms which can used for
small group work, as well as a large presentation room with top
of the range audio-visual presentational and video-conferencing
kit and can also be used for lunchrooms, which can be very important
for school groups. BUT you don't need dedicated lunchroom space,
just areas that can be used that way for 30 minutes around lunchtime.
The area is also very close to the Churchill Museum. The Shop
is at the end of the visit (and almost unavoidable!) The groups
entrance reception area—extra multi-purpose space very useful,
good for dealing with large groups and moving them through the
museum. Storage space in the teaching spaces is really important
so that rapid change over from one activity to the next can be
done.
(b) adults: the location and ease
of admission, without need to queue in the rain/cold; location
of toilets near of arrival and departure (the same point).
2. Which aspects are really essential to
that success?
— the efficient throughput of visitors,
especially when busy and in groups; the separation out of groups
on arrival;
— the design of the Churchill Museum
displays to be user (especially child)-friendly and able to entertain,
encourage exploration and, most importantly, to sustain interest;
— staffing levels among Visitor Services
Officers and in professional Learning Staff;
— good signage and navigation aids
(a good practical map/free simple guide—but not one which
discourages sales of professional glossy souvenir guides);
— well researched, multi-lingual, multi-ability
level audio guides;
— access: all areas, texts and displays
are accessible and comprehensible to wheelchair users, to people
with learning difficulties, and those who do not speak English,
as well as all ages and both genders;
— loop system in reception and auditoria
for those with hearing difficulties;
— training of staff in customer service,
in interacting with visitors (to help inform and navigate) and
in background knowledge of the site, its content and history;
— professional on-site catering facilities,
usable for both public café and corporate events;
— very strict procedures for operations
and monitoring of financial controls (ideally CCTV wherever cash
is being handled); straightforward, but effective security on
reception; and
— well designed security systems (of
prize exhibits, to react to abandoned objects, overnight site
monitoring) and emergency alarm systems and procedures.
3. What doesn't work and what would you
change if you could re-design the museum?
A small number of interactive displays do not
work as well as we hoped, either in terms of their physical robustness
or their intuitiveness, leaving visitors confused and deprived
of information.
The design (of the whole project, not merely
the museum) was obliged to fit into an existing historic form
and not everything that we would have liked to achieve could be
achieved. If we had been creating a new building, we would have:
— Created more toilet facilities, for
the Learning Suite, and for general and for corporate use, but,
in the latter cases, further into the site.
— Had greater separation of the Learning
Suite from the public areas, with its own entrance.
— Planned the plant requirements for
air conditioning better/further in advance.
— Found better siting for the plant
(to make it more easily accessible and replaceable).
— Allowed more space for prams/buggies.
4. Which features had you thought would be
important, but turned out to be unnecessary or not as important
as you thought—in particular, how necessary are toilet facilities
and cafes?
We were concerned that we are unable (for lack
of space) to offer a cloakroom facility, but it is rarely an issue.
Otherwise all the aspects that taxed us proved
to be crucial in varying degrees to the operation and success
of the project.
Toilet facilities are absolutely essential and
need to be adequate for the demand (greater, in terms of person
hours usage, for females) and contain all current modern facilities
(baby change—in both male and female areas.
Café: Until the expansion of the CWR
we did not have a café, as the average dwell time of a
visit (45-60 minutes) made it unlikely that the café would
be heavily used. Also, limits on the number of people allowed
in the site under fire regulations made it commercially unsound
to have visitors spending lengthy periods consuming low earning
cups of tea, thus preventing higher paying visitors entering the
site. Now the average dwell time has risen (ca 90-120 minutes)
a café is frequently a natural need and as the limit on
visitor numbers has risen, we can afford to have them spending
lengthy periods consuming larger earning comestibles. I would
deem a café only necessary if it could be judged to be
financially viable. It should not be seen as a necessary service
to the public.
5. Which activities have been particularly
successful with:
(a) children—very low tech
works as well as high tech—drawing, handling objects, actors
people in role.
(b) adults—reading other peoples
reflections—very low tech pose a question ask people to
responds, post up responses people like reading these, people
for them to talk to, people like to be able to tell people their
stories/opinions.
6. Which activities have been a turn-off?
Things that take a lot of time or are complicated,
people not prepared to commit more than about 10 minutes to an
activity.
7. Are there any activities or aspects of
the buildings that you consider might translate particularly well
to a parliamentary setting?
Investigations in the museum, people putting
forward their opinions, voting on views.
In considering a lay-out for the Parliamentary
Visitor Centre all the above should be taken into account especially
in respect of coping with large numbers/concentrations of people
in groups, access (physical, linguistic and intellectual).
9 June 2006
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