London Science Museum. Image: Wiki click here for link

The Science Museum has told Londonmultimedianews that an £8 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund is going to transform people’ s understanding of the history of science.

The museum is a recipient of a round of Lottery funding worth £98m.

It’s going to nine heritage sites, including projects to preserve Britain’s scientific and technological history.

The Heritage Lottery Fund said it hopes some of the projects will inspire young people to take a greater interest in science and technology.

The Science Museum says the £8m will fund a major redevelopment of its medicine galleries, which are due to be completed in 2019.

It will showcase 3,000 objects from the world’s largest medical collection and reveal personal stories of how lives have been transformed by changes to medicine and health over the last 500 years.

The £24 million project will transform the first floor of the Science Museum, creating a magnificent new home for the Museum’s world-renowned medical collections.

Development funding of £400,000 has been awarded by the HLF, enabling further work on the development of the galleries.

The Science Museum told Londonmultimedianews of their delight at receiving the funding:

Ian Blatchford, Director of the Science Museum, said:

The Heritage Lottery Fund was hugely impressed with our plans and ambitions to continue the transformation of the Science Museum, and I want to thank them for this award. Work has already begun on developing the Medicine Galleries and we look forward to welcoming visitors to these stunning new galleries in 2019.

Stuart Hobley, Head of HLF London, said:

We are delighted to support the Science Museum’s plans to develop their new Medicine Galleries, home to the largest and most significant collection in the world.  By creating a truly international exploration of medicine and medical treatments from Roman times to the present day, these remarkable galleries will transform the public’s understanding of the history behind the science that affects us all from birth to death.

 The Wellcome Trust had already agreed to award the museum £10 million for the new galleries, subject to other funding, with £500,000 up front for project development.

The galleries will be free to visit and are set to open in 2019.

Other London heritage sites which also received funding are:

British Library to receive £9.6 million. Image: Wiki click here for link

The British Library will receive £9.6m for its project to digitise the nation’s ‘rare, unique and most vulnerable’ sound recordings and open them up online for people to hear.

The money will be used for a major refurbishment project which will increase the number of objects on display from 20% of the collection to 90%.

The Geffrye Museum to receive £11 million from Lottery Hertiage museum. Image: Wiki click for link