This massively underrated museum has closed for a £13m makeover

Describing Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens as eclectic feels like an understatement. Having started life in 1846 as the UK’s first publicly owned cultural hub outside London, it’s been quietly collecting an assortment of quirky artefacts for the last 180 years.

Today, its 108,000 object-strong collection features everything from the 1986 ‘Sunderland Bluebird’, the first Nissan car ever produced in Britain, to taxidermied big cat Wallace the Lion, who arrived in Sunderland in 1868 with so-called ‘African wild beast tamer’ Martini Maccomo. The museum even has its own time machine gallery, and the lush winter gardens in the glasshouse next door swarm with more than 2,000 tropical and exotic plants, as well as a treetop walkway. Like we said, its collection is nothing if not diverse, which is exactly what landed it on Time Out's list of top 20 UK museums. 

But if you’re currently Googling the best route to Sunderland so you can feast your eyes on all the above, well, we’d recommend holding off. That’s because the museum shuttered its doors at the end of August for a well-deserved refurb.

The £13.6 million makeover, which will see the site remain closed until late 2028, will transform the ground floor and create new galleries designed to show off Sunderland’s heritage. Plans also include a new entrance connecting the museum to Mowbray Park as well as a new community learning facility, named The Growing Space. Works will reinvigorate the museum collections and its visitor experience, making it an even more welcoming place once it welcomes visitors back inside in two years’ time. 

‘This once-in-a-generation transformation is about creating a museum that is fit for the future, while protecting its heritage and collections for generations to come,’ Sunderland city councillor Ciera Hudspith said of the project. ‘While we know people will be sad to see the museum temporarily close, this marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for one of our best-loved attractions.’

Just because the doors of the museum have to close doesn’t mean it’ll stop its activities altogether. In fact, the cultural hub has lined up a programme of city-wide activities and events during the renovations, including a ‘Then and Now Photography Project’ which invites locals to capture the changing identity of the city, and a ‘Sunderland Stories on Tour’ programme of workshops, set to be hosted in community venues across Sunderland.

Plus, once the refurb works are underway, the museum will be letting visitors take a peek at the improvements through hard hat tours. Sounds like it’s to get the high-vis on and head down there.

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