Prior to opening, Museum staff predicted they might achieve the
100,000 mark within two weeks of opening, but that target was
smashed in less than half the time expected, with the first week’s
tally expected to reach around 120,000. Visitors have come from far
and near, with locals and families well-represented in addition to
increasing volumes of tourists arriving for the Edinburgh
Festivals.
Gordon Rintoul, Director, National Museums Scotland, said:
“The number of visitors we have had so far is absolutely
fantastic. We were always confident that there would be a high
level of interest in our transformed Museum, but to get over
100,000 people in less than a week really has surpassed all of our
expectations.”
The Museum reopened last Friday, 29 July, after a major
three-year redevelopment. A spectacular opening ceremony on
Chambers Street was followed by nearly 6,000 people passing through
the doors in the first hour of opening. In all, 22,000 visitors
packed the Museum on the opening day – over double the amount
expected – and there has been a constant stream of visitors
ever since.
The tally went through the 100,000 mark late on Wednesday
afternoon. The 100,000th visitors were the Vass family from
Gorebridge, Ian, Kim and children Riannon, aged 10 and Layla, aged
6. Rachel Sim from the Museum’s Visitor Services team presented the
family with a Museum goodie bag, including badges, postcards, a
voucher for the shop and a year’s family membership.
The Natural World galleries, including animals such as the
life-sized T.rex, a great white shark and giraffe, and the
Discoveries gallery, featuring the Millennium Clock in addition to
the world’s oldest surviving colour television and Alexander
Fleming’s Nobel Prize medal are proving extremely popular, while
the Adventure Planet and Imagine galleries are proving a hit with
younger visitors.
Notes to Editors
About the Museum
The history of the National Museum of Scotland begins in 1780,
at the height of the Enlightenment, with the formation of The
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland to collect the archaeology of
Scotland – forming the basis of the National Museum of Antiquities
of Scotland. In the mid-19th century the Royal Scottish Museum
(then called the Industrial Museum of Scotland) began to show
international collections at the building on Chambers Street, and
in 1985 the two came together to form the foundation of the
National Museum of Scotland. In 1998 the building was extended with
a new Museum of Scotland, telling the country’s history from
earliest times to the present day. Thus a single Museum in
the heart of Edinburgh was created to celebrate Scottish national
history, world cultures, applied arts and science.
The £47.4 million redevelopment, jointly funded by the Heritage
Lottery Fund (£17.8 million), and the Scottish Government (£16
million), with a further £13.6 million from private sources,
incorporates:
- Over 8,000 objects, 80% of which will be in display for the
first time
- A new entrance hall at street level
- 16 new galleries
- A spacious gallery for international touring exhibitions
- 2 discovery galleries for children and families
- A new 3-storey learning centre
- The reinstated Grand Gallery, and a new addition: the Window on
the World
- 50% more public space
National Museums Scotland is the largest multi-disciplinary
museum group in Scotland, with four million items in its
collections and the largest body of curatorial and conservation
expertise in the country. Today, the group includes:
- National Museum of Scotland (formerly the Royal Museum and the
Museum of Scotland)
- National Museum of Flight
- National War Museum
- National Museum of Rural Life
- National Museum of Costume.
3 August 2011
For further information and images please
contact:
Susan Gray, Hannah Dolby or Bruce Blacklaw, National Museums
Scotland Press Office
or email h.dolby@nms.ac.uk
or b.blacklaw@nms.ac.uk,
t. 0131 247 4165.