Green light given for Harlow Museum extension and new café

The approved designs, by leading property and construction consultancy McBains, are set to provide new exhibition space, teaching space, reception area and washrooms, together with a new café and community space.

Run by Harlow Council, the museum is housed within a Grade II listed former stable block, set within an award-winning walled garden. Offering a unique and well-established collection of artefacts, the museum requires more space to display its archived collection and to provide greater educational opportunities for schools and the local community.

Two new exhibition galleries will replace the existing, 1980s glazed lean-to structures along the north and south flanks of the museum courtyard and provide 147 sq. m of additional exhibition space. A glazed link between the new galleries will enable continuous visitor flow around the exhibition spaces, whilst a new extension within the walled gardens will provide a new arrival point and reception for visitors to the museum.

Mark Hall Barn - an outbuilding most recently used by the Radio Society and The Scouts – will be refurbished and re-purposed as a group learning space for the museum's educational and community engagement programmes, with a new extension to the building that will house a café providing food and beverages, amenities and flexible space to cater for events and community functions.

Commenting on the scheme, Chris Dudley, Associate Director at McBains, said: "The improvements to Harlow Museum are set to vastly enhance the visitor experience, whilst providing additional educational opportunities for schools and the local community".

McBains has been involved with the scheme since its inception, providing architecture, civil and structural engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, sustainability, project management and cost management services to Harlow Council.