New galleries taking shape
15 November 2010
Multimillion pound work to transform RAMM is progressing well. The main contractors, BAM Construction, are close to finishing their work and local firm, Benbow from Newton Abbot, are now starting to take their place. As galleries are completed, Benbow are installing the new display cases, built specially to show off RAMM’s stunning collections.
The past
RAMM closed at the end of 2007 for the first real top to toe refurbishment in its history. The oldest parts of the building date from 1867 and even the newest section was completed in 1899, so everywhere was ready for a facelift. Just how big a facelift only became clear once BAM came on site and began to demolish some of the more ramshackle bits: far from solid Victorian foundations, it turned out that the rear of the building was sitting on a Norman defensive ditch which the Victorians hadn’t filled in properly. As a result the back of the building was sinking into soft mud!
Realising our vision
All that now lies in the past and the dedicated development team’s vision of modern facilities in a historic building is close to becoming reality. Regular RAMM visitors will be astonished to see just how much of the building was hidden from view in the past, as they meet in a central courtyard which used to be a hollow square in the middle of the building. It is now a state of the art gallery doubling as a great place for social events.
Elsewhere big new galleries will attract the best touring shows from the national museums, and many more objects from the extensive RAMM collections will see the light of day, as public space expands by nearly 50%.
The future
There is still much to do in RAMM, not least bringing back all the objects from their store and creating the stunning new displays planned for the opening late next year. The pace of work is not slackening, and although the project has taken much longer than planned and has run into substantial cost increases, it is still on course to provide Exeter with a fantastic modern museum which has lost nothing of the richness of over 140 years of service to the city.
