See the light…
In just over twelve hours’ time we’re back. Join us from 7am for breakfast, bugs, bands and an enormous sense of relief.
Photo: Rob Gregg
Category: Roof works
Rex in a box
We couldn’t just tease you with last week’s shot of the Iguanodon being unwrapped. The sight of our enormous dinosaurs being liberated from the foam, tape and chip board which has encased them for the past year is too good not to share.
Each time I look out into the Museum court, another specimen has been revealed. The elephants are back, the camel is looking great and the giraffe is next on the list. But the biggest impact over the last couple of weeks has to be the large dinosaurs regaining dominance in the centre of the Museum.
The T rex and Iguanodon skeletons are far too huge to move… and wouldn’t even get out of the front door! So they had their own bespoke wooden boxes built for them, which protected them from damage and dust during the roof restoration project.
But with just 3 weeks until our re-opening, the boxes are down and the foam wrapping has been discarded. Here are a few of my favourite shots of the return of the dinosaurs.
Credit: Nicola Fielding
Credit: Scott Billings
Our dinosaurs are ready and waiting for the visitors to return on Saturday 15th February. We all hope to see you then!
Rachel Parle, Interpretation and Education Officer
Good news travels fast
The Museum’s been at the centre of a media whirlwind over the past week. After a rather dormant year, things are coming back to life and the TV cameras, microphones and journalists are keen to capture it all.
Wednesday 15th January marked one month until the day when our doors will swing open again, so it was great to hear us popping up on BBC Oxford… both TV and radio in one day!
Radio journalist Martin Eastaugh seemed to thoroughly enjoy his time with us and put together a really enthusiastic report, which features some names you may recognise. Listen from 01:55 to hear the latest on the Museum’s re-opening. Then at 02:50, make sure you listen to Martin talking to Purcell architect Nicholas Bradley high up on the roof. You have just 5 days left to hear the report, so don’t dawdle!
The BBC TV cameras arrived just in time to capture the unwrapping of one of our very largest specimens, the Iguanodon skeleton. Take a look at Stuart Tinworth’s piece for BBC Oxford news that shows just how beautiful and light the Museum is looking lately.
Then, to top it off, we’re only on the front page of the Oxford Times!
Of course, the attention’s very nice, but the most positive thing that’s come out of the media coverage is the public’s reaction. We’ve had many people telling us how excited they were to see their “favourite museum” on TV and to hear that they’ll soon be able to come back and enjoy it once more. The good news is, there’s just 29 days to go!
Rachel Parle, Interpretation and Education Officer
The end of the rainbow
Happy New Year everyone! Here at the Museum of Natural History we’re starting the year with a sense of excitement and anticipation. 2013 was a year of darkness. The Museum doors shut on 30th December 2012 and we’ve been closed to the public ever since. But 2014 is a year of change. On Saturday 15th February at 7am, the big Victorian doors will be flung open and the Museum will once again be full of inquisitive visitors.
Credit: Stephen French
As I’m sure you know, the closure was necessary to carry out a full refurbishment of the unique glass roof. I’m now excited to say that every one of its 8,500 glass tiles has been removed, cleaned, replaced and sealed. The final tiles were carefully put into place just before Christmas. The roof looks spectacular inside and out, light streams into the Museum and there are no leaks. The work is complete!
So we’re ready to re-open, right?! Well, not quite. Hundreds of specimens are still wrapped, boxed and lying in wait. The next few weeks (40 days to be precise) will be a whirlwind of unwrapping, cleaning, planning and plotting as the Museum staff ensure everything is looking its best again for re-opening.
But now is a chance to celebrate the impressive task that’s been completed and to marvel at our beautiful glass roof. Here you can see Stephen French, Site Manager for Beard Construction, stealing a reflective moment as the work comes to an end.
Credit: Mike Peckett
Rachel Parle, Interpretation and Education Officer
Into the Light
We have been darkened now for over a year although, as this blog has hopefully shown, far from dormant. But it is almost time to re-emerge into the light. And what a lot of light there will be…
The cause of our closure – and the subject of many posts here – was the restoration of the beautiful glass-tiled roof of the Museum building. More than 8,000 tiles have been individually removed, cleaned and resealed. The result is a luminous canopy above our heads, where the blue sky of a clear day complements the golden ironwork of the architecture.
Visitors to the Pitt Rivers Museum can already get a good look at the roof as they pass through our Museum on their way, but we are now looking forward to welcoming back our own visitors. And the date is set: Saturday 15th February 2014, when we will be open from dawn till dusk (that’s 7am until 5pm). We’ll have a brand new café which will be serving breakfast from daybreak and food throughout the day. More news on that soon.
As well as the welcome return of lots of favourite exhibits, there will be plenty going on throughout the day with talks, live music, star specimens, bug handling and more.
But as we build towards reopening we are also moving into the twilight days of this here blog. Darkened not dormant will become the very thing it claims it is not – dormant and inactive. Of course, it is not the beginning of the end, but rather the end of the beginning as we will be launching a new Museum blog that will continue to report all the comings and goings from the various collections and departments in the building.
For now though: Saturday 15th February, dusk till dawn. Put the date in your diaries and spread the word. See you there…
Scott Billings, Communications coordinator
A blur of activity
After almost a year of being ensconced in metal scaffolding and boarded hoardings the working structure inside the Museum was brought to ground with impressive rapidity – and a whole lot of noise – last week.
The blurry figure you can see above is one of a number of construction staff who struck the scaffold in a matter of days, throwing sunshine on the north aisle once again. Now only the central column of scaffolding remains, with just 80-odd glass tiles still to be fitted. Once this section comes down the roof again becomes an inaccessible domain, populated with secret graffiti and the newly-installed plaque.
Down on the ground the light is flooding in to the Museum, as you can see in the picture below. To the left you can see why: this is an example of the state of the tiles before they were cleaned, so you can imagine how much light was being blocked by a century or so’s grime.
Now our attention is starting to turn to the task of repopulating all the empty aisles and cases. It’s a big job that requires a lot of careful planning, but we’ll keep you posted along the way.
Scott Billings – Communications coordinator
More Than A Dodo 