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Hawking building opens for public tours

Writer's picture: RichardRichard
  • Inaugurated as the Hawking Building, the innovative collection management facility provides a sustainable and publicly accessible new home for world-famous Science Museum Group Collection; 


  • Over 300,000 historic items were carefully moved into the new facility, from a toy duck used by scientists to identify landing sites on a comet to a 1.3-tonne Sno-cat, the first vehicle to complete a motorised crossing of Antarctica and hundreds of items from Professor Stephen Hawking’s office; 


  • Regular guided public tours, school trips and researcher visits now enable unprecedented public access to the collection, with visitors invited to walk among towering objects and glimpse behind the scenes of a working museum store;


  • Creative response to the collection and its new home by acclaimed artist Bedwyr Williams published to mark the opening of the Hawking Building.


The Glasgow Tramcar in position in the Hawking Building at the Science and Innovation Park
The Glasgow Tramcar in position in the Hawking Building at the Science and Innovation Park

The culmination of the £65 million One Collection Programme with the public opening of the Hawking Building, a vast and innovative facility where the Science Museum Group is caring for the nation’s science collection. Over 300,000 historic objects have been carefully studied, digitised and moved into the new purpose-built building at the Science and Innovation Park in Wiltshire, which is now open for guided tours, school and research visits.


View of the Hawking Building at the Science and Innovation Park  © Science Museum Group
View of the Hawking Building at the Science and Innovation Park © Science Museum Group

The first behind-the-scenes public tours of this building begin today, with tour dates in 2025 now available to book, allowing visitors to get up close to the Science Museum Group’s world-class collection of objects from science, technology, engineering, and medicine. Led by an expert guide, visitors on the guided tours will encounter incredible, world-changing objects in their new home and discover their stories, while also enjoying stunning views of this vast facility and seeing Science Museum Group staff at work caring for the collection.    


The Red Label Bentley arrives at the Hawking Building at the Science and Innovation Park  © Science Museum Group
The Red Label Bentley arrives at the Hawking Building at the Science and Innovation Park © Science Museum Group

The facility has been inaugurated as the Hawking Building, in recognition of the lasting impact of Professor Stephen Hawking’s scientific research and public engagement, and his long-standing relationship with the Science Museum Group.


View of the grid in the Hawking Building at the Science and Innovation Park   © Science Museum Group
View of the grid in the Hawking Building at the Science and Innovation Park © Science Museum Group

As a child, Hawking drew inspiration from regular visits to the Science Museum. Much later, he lent his communication devices for display, gave lectures and debated Nobel Prize laureates in the museum, and even served as a guide for a day. In 2021 the extraordinary contents of Hawking’s Cambridge University office were acquired for the nation by the Science Museum Group through the UK Government’s Acceptance in Lieu scheme. More than 1,000 objects, including his communication and mobility equipment, have since been studied and cared for in the Hawking Building, with staff and researchers uncovering the everyday and extraordinary stories within them. 


A conservator cleans the interior of a quadrant from the Zero Energy Thermonuclear Assembly fusion experiment in the Hawking Building   © Science Museum Group
A conservator cleans the interior of a quadrant from the Zero Energy Thermonuclear Assembly fusion experiment in the Hawking Building © Science Museum Group

Sir Ian Blatchford, Director and Chief Executive of the Science Museum Group, said: ‘I am thrilled to announce the Hawking Building as the name for this remarkable home for the world-famous objects in our care. Having been inspired at the Science Museum as a child, Stephen became a great friend to the Science Museum Group and this is a fitting way to celebrate that life-long relationship and our acquisition of the extraordinary items from his office that will inspire others for generations to come.


‘The first public tours of the Hawking Building mark a significant milestone in the transformation of how we research and share our internationally significant collection with the world. Thanks to generous funding and support from HM Treasury and DCMS, more than 300,000 historic objects have moved to this state-of-the-art facility that sets new standards in environmentally sustainable collections care.‘


View of the grid in the Hawking Building at the Science and Innovation Park   © Science Museum Group
View of the grid in the Hawking Building at the Science and Innovation Park © Science Museum Group

Sir Chris Bryant, Museums Minister, said: ‘The Science Museum Group brings the darkest depths of the ocean and the furthest reaches of space to the public's finger tips, inspiring visitors across its five museums. There’s nothing as inspiring as when you see a child mesmerised by the appliance of science.


‘I’m delighted that the Hawking Building has opened so that even more of the Science Museum Group's marvellous collection can educate and entertain, while offering the public a peek behind the curtain of how this great institution brings the world around us to life.’


View of the grid in the Hawking Building at the Science and Innovation Park   © Science Museum Group
View of the grid in the Hawking Building at the Science and Innovation Park © Science Museum Group

Tim Hawking said: ‘As a family, we are delighted that the Science Museum Group has chosen to name this magnificent new facility the Hawking Building. We are so grateful to the Science Museum Group for taking such good care of the Stephen Hawking collection and ensuring that his work and legacy as a scientist, disability advocate and technology pioneer will be accessible to visitors to their museums nationwide.’


Vickers Tango 1 submersible in position in the Hawking Building at the Science and Innovation Park  © Science Museum Group
Vickers Tango 1 submersible in position in the Hawking Building at the Science and Innovation Park © Science Museum Group

The Science Museum Group created the Hawking Building, its new collection management facility at the Science and Innovation Park, thanks to funding from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and from HM Treasury as part of the £150 million Blythe House Project, which saw collections from the Science Museum Group, the British Museum and the V&A moved from Blythe House in west London into new facilities.


The Hawking Building enables the Science Museum Group to better store, conserve, research and digitise our unique collection, while also improving the process of displaying items across the Group’s five museums. As the Hawking Building opens for guided public tours, school and research visits for the first time, it will revolutionise public access to the Science Museum Group Collection, ensuring these historic objects continue to inspire future generations.


View of the Hawking Building at the Science and Innovation Park   © Science Museum Group
View of the Hawking Building at the Science and Innovation Park © Science Museum Group

The complex process to study, record, photograph, digitise, pack, move and unpack over 300,000 historic objects began in 2018 and finished earlier this year.


One of the first objects to arrive in the Hawking Building in 2021 was a toy duck used by scientists to help a spacecraft land on a remarkably duck-shaped comet as well as lancets presented to vaccination pioneer Edward Jenner, and a Thomas the Tank Engine toy, made locally in Swindon. The move from the Blythe House object store in London to the Hawking Building in Wiltshire was as sustainable as possible, with packing materials minimised and reused, vehicle loads maximised and pre-planned routes used to ensure fuel efficiency.


View of the racking in the Hawking Building at the Science and Innovation Park   © Science Museum Group
View of the racking in the Hawking Building at the Science and Innovation Park © Science Museum Group

Hundreds of larger historic objects already housed at the Science and Innovation Park – including one of four Sno-cat vehicles to be used in the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctica Expedition, a record-breaking balloon gondola used to study the stratosphere, and an R.N.L.I. inshore lifeboat which was the result of the 1966 Blue Peter appeal – have also been cleaned, conserved and photographed before moving into their new home within the Hawking Building.


The colourful grid, upon which hundreds of large objects have now found their positions, was used to store objects as they were unpacked and moved to shelving units, large racking and beyond. The grid is 3,487m2; during the unpacking process it was filled and cleared three times.


Visitors on a guided tour of the Hawking Building at the Science and Innovation Park  © Science Museum Group
Visitors on a guided tour of the Hawking Building at the Science and Innovation Park © Science Museum Group

Tickets to the guided public tours of the Hawking Building are £27.50. Concessions (Child aged 13-15, student, unemployed and disabled) and local residents (Postcode must begin SN1, SN2, SN3, SN4 or SN5) tickets are £16.50. Ages 7-12 go free. Strictly ages 7+; recommended age is 12+. For further information or to book tickets, please visit scienceinnovationpark.org.uk/visit-us/public-guided-tours.

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