Great Western Coffee Shop

The National Railway Museum in York has launched a competition to find the architect who will design a new ?16.5m building to showcase the future of rail engineering and to link the museum site for the first time.

Part of the National Railway Museum?s ?55m Vision 2025 masterplan, the 4,500 sqm Central Hall will connect the existing Great Hall and Station Hall buildings and provide additional capacity to welcome up to 1.2m visitors annually.

Central Hall, National Railway Museum

Central Hall is an iconic centrepiece building for the National Railway Museum in York, creating outstanding welcome, arrival and gallery spaces as well as improving the site?s connectivity and legibility. Feilden Fowles beat 75 other teams to the commission, which will transform the visitor arrival experience and integrate the National Railway Museum?s estate in time for its 50th anniversary in 2025.

Our design reflects the spirit of the great railway architecture of the 19th century, generating uplifting and jubilant spaces that celebrate the excitement and reverence for the railways. The design is based on the team?s low-tech philosophy, dramatically reducing our reliance on concrete and steel to lower embodied carbon through a beautifully crafted timber frame structure. A combination of passive design principles and active systems reduce the site wide operational carbon footprint by 80%.

Central Hall rises proudly above Museum Square referencing locomotive roundhouses and drawing inspiration from the tradition of the world?s great museums with large, welcoming circular halls that inspire curiosity to explore the collections beyond. Balancing the industrial railway vernacular of the former York North locomotive depot and Goods Station, the building creates warm, welcoming and uplifting spaces, dramatically improving the comfort and wellbeing of visitors, staff and volunteers.

As we enter a new renaissance in railway innovation, the revitalisation of the National Railway Museum will have a significant impact on the future of the railways in the UK and beyond.

Project: Central Hall, National Railway Museum
Location: York
Building Type: Museum, Cafe, Retail
Project budget: ?16.5 million
Status: Concept design
Gross internal floor area: 4,500 sqm

Team
Client: National Railway Museum, Science Museum Group
Structural engineer: Price & Myers
M&E engineer: Max Fordham

The National Railway Museum?s site at Shildon is to have a new collection building that will house up to 50 rail vehicles, bringing the total at Locomotion to 120 and creating the UK?s largest rail vehicle display.

AOC Architecture has been appointed by the Science Museum Group to start work on a ?4.5 million project as part of Locomotion?s ?6 million improvement programme to regenerate the museum?s historic site, with Durham County Council contributing ?2.25 million to support the delivery of the new building.

The architects will create a sustainable, low maintenance and low energy-usage building, which is sympathetic to the local area and accessible for visitors.

The final design will feature a lightweight, steel frame construction that will be open to the public and will house railway vehicles in a stable environment.
(https://images.rail.co/wp-content/uploads/Locomotion-new-building-site-isometric-AOC-Architects-1024x724.jpg)

...and will house railway vehicles in a stable environment.

Will these be horse-drawn vehicles?

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The 2000m2 collection building is expected to open in 2023 ahead of celebrations to mark the bicentenary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 2025.

The building is the centrepiece of a programme of improvements at Locomotion as part of the National Railway Museum’s ‘Vision 2025’ masterplan. Other improvements include repairs to the site’s historic buildings, the display of the original Locomotion No.1 and the relocation of the historically-significant Gaunless Bridge.

The proposed new building will house up to 45 rail vehicles, in addition to the 87 already on display in the existing collection building, to create one of the world’s largest collections of rail vehicles.

NRM Central Hall decision on hold after fears raised over access to site
9 hrs ago     By Joe Cooper

A decision on whether to approve a “deeply controversial” plan to build a new central hall at the National Railway Museum (NRM) has been deferred – after a mammoth five hour meeting.

Councillors questioned whether the application had taken into account the needs of disabled people after public speakers raised concerns about access through the site.

The proposed rotunda will unite the two halves of the railway museum, cutting off Leeman Road, a direct route to and from the city centre for people living in the area.

People will be able to walk through the new hall, but only when the museum is open.

Councillors were told they could not discuss the walkway agreement – which dictates how people will be able to get through the hall – as it did not form part of the NRM’s planning application.

Several speakers from York’s business community backed the proposal, but all residents were against the plan...

There's always a risk, when you give a project a pretentious name like "Vision 2025", that when it goes wrong you'll look rather silly and people will start making "jokes" about it.

Friday 05 August 2022

Plans have been approved for the National Railway Museum’s new building called Central Hall, which will transform this major attraction and herald the start of delivering the York Central development.

City of York Council’s planning committee approved the National Railway Museum’s reserved matters application at a meeting on Thursday 4 August.
...
The Central Hall plans form an early stage of the delivery of York Central, the 45-hectare regeneration site which is a partnership with Network Rail, Homes England, City of York Council and the museum.

Work is expected to start in early 2023 with completion in time for the celebrations in 2025.