Plymouth people asked to ‘loveourpast’

People in Plymouth are being asked to ‘loveourpast’ as part of a history and cultural campaign to help raise awareness about some of the fantastic stories the city has to tell.

The campaign has been launched to gather ideas, views and support for the new historic and cultural centre being developed, formerly known as the History Centre, but also to help build a love of Plymouth’s fantastic and world-changing local history.

To help share some of the city’s hidden historic treasures, a new website has been created packed full of interesting Plymouth facts and photos, plus details about the history centre project at www.loveourpast.co.uk

The new historic and cultural centre will transform the existing museum on North Hill into a cutting-edge, interactive visitor attraction, three times its existing size as part of a £21 million investment. This new, purpose-built centre will house unique and nationally significant collections from Plymouth and West Devon Record Office, Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, South West Film and Television Archive and South West Image Bank.

Plymouth City Council committed £5 million to create a history centre for the city in September 2013 to help protect and shout about the city’s past and invest in its future growth. A bid for a £12.5 million investment from the Heritage Lottery Fund was submitted in November 2013 and the result for round one will be known in May this year (2014). The outstanding cash will be sourced from other smaller bids.

Councillor Peter Smith, Deputy Leader for Plymouth City Council, said: “We’re gathering together ideas and suggestions from people across Plymouth and beyond to help build a new visitor attraction that will breathe life into our most influential historic figures such as Scott, Darwin and Drake and share some intriguing historic gems that the city has been hiding!

“We want to hear your views to help make this attraction a real success. We’ve got lots of ideas how to attract people to the centre and keep them coming back but we really want to hear the views of residents and business people so that it’s a place Plymouth people feel committed to and passionate about.”

Plans for the new centre include providing 4,310sqm of refurbished space in the existing Grade II listed museum and library building, plus St Luke’s Church in Tavistock Place, as well as 2,676 sqm of space in a brand new extension to the reverse of the library building. This will mean much bigger and better exhibition areas and fantastic facilities for the visiting public, including study spaces for students and leisure facilities for visitors.

The Centre will aim to treble the number of historic and cultural tourists from 16,500 to 45,000, double the total number of visitors to 200,000, more than treble the number of researchers from 3,000 to 10,000, and double the number of volunteers from 250 to 500.

Three pop-up museums have already taken place in the city to gather public views, including two held last week at Derriford Hospital and the Civic Centre, plus the first held in November last year at Drake’s Circus Mall. A loveourpast fact finding event also took place last Saturday (22 February) to share plans for the history centre to date. 

To show support, people are being asked to follow loveourpast on Twitter and like it on Facebook

For more information, visit the website at www.loveourpast.co.uk