Historic Royal Palaces announces £70 million for new learning facilities at the Tower of London
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Image: CGI of proposed Julia Rausing Learning Centre at the Tower of London - courtesy of Historic Royal Palaces
Historic Royal Palaces has announced a major investment in its historic Tower of London site, which will see the development of new learning centres, a dedicated community space for local residents, a “green classroom” in the moat, and an archive study centre, reports the Museums Association.
Tomorrow’s Tower, the long-term strategy for the UNESCO World Heritage Site, will increase learning capacity by 250%, enabling the site to increase annual school visits from 125,000 to 200,000 children, as well as extending access to pupils and communities across the UK through new digital programmes.
The various aspects of the programme are expected to complete by 2030.
Historic Royal Palaces has already raised £20m towards the £70m projected costs of the programme, with support from the Julia Rausing Trust, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Garfield Weston Foundation and others. Jamie Fobert Architects and landscape architects Grant Associates have been appointed to design the spaces.
“The Tower of London should be a place of learning, discovery and connection for everyone, and Tomorrow’s Tower is our long‑term commitment to making that happen,” said John Barnes, chief executive of Historic Royal Palaces.
“This investment in schools and learning is an important first step, within a wider programme that also addresses sustainability, visitor experience, conservation and access. Thanks to the generosity of our funders, we are opening the Tower up more widely, so future generations can understand why its stories still matter.”
At Future Cities Forum's May event, hosted by Historic Royal Palaces, Tower Director, Andrew Jackson stated:
'Trying to retrofit anything into the fortress here is a real challenges. We ask ourselves what audiences want and try to find a baseline around this. We must avoid the lowest common denominator. We can do digital and have done it, but with around three million visitors, we cannot do immersive digital. We concentrate on how you look to the future by using new tech in old buildings. We are building up our educational facilities while being aware of the need for sustainable measures such as heat pumps and new radiators to fulfil our targets, but it is a challenge. Of course on the latter, we work with Historic England and I would like to put solar panels on the roof here but am told I cannot do that.'
A question was put to Andrew about having to satisfy two very difference audiences - the public with their growing appetite to have their own stories and voices captured in response to the Tower of London's collections and the very different demands of the City of London, which might want acquiescence with the ambition of commerce to build more tall towers. Andrew said:
'There is difference in managing stakeholders and managing visitors. In terms of engaging with the community we are getting quite sophisticated and we have co-curated exhibitions in South Kensington, Hampton Court Palace with the community and also here at the Tower of London with groups from Tower Hamlets. Our community work is really important and also how people experience a place like this. It isn't just about visitors but making spaces available for groups to have community meetings or just meet for a cup of coffee.
On the type of leadership needed to break down barriers with the City of London, Andrew stated that it was about creating better dialogue:
'Physically, we have a big road dividing us from the City which gets very busy but this also acts sometimes as a mental barrier. It's a line on a map and we have to think mentally of ways we can cross it to build relationships. The key type of leadership is to think positively about what we can do to mutual benefit and the type of dialogue which will bring that about, the opposite of language which is confrontational and not collaborative.'
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