A new museum for the City of London

A property development in the City of London is to include a new permanent home for the Migration Museum, currently based in Lewisham, with three floors including exhibition and event space, a cafe and shop.

(c) 3XN, Migration Museum and Dominus

The museum explores how the movement of people to and from Britain across the ages has made us who we are – as individuals and as a nation. It will include an educational outreach programme to engage with diverse communities across London and the UK.

The property development, by real estate company Dominus was approved today by the City of London’s Planning Applications Sub-Committee.

The developer has agreed to provide the museum space rent-free for 60 years, while also covering its operating costs for three years, and has donated £500,000 to support its fund-raising campaign.

It’s not a token space either – as the museum is getting about half the ground floor space of the property development, and quite a bit of the first floor and second floors for exhibitions and office space.

Sophie Henderson, CEO of the Migration Museum, said: “We are delighted to have secured this opportunity for a permanent home for the Migration Museum. We are creating Britain’s missing museum, exploring how the movement of people to and from the City, London and the UK has shaped who we all are today – as individuals, as communities and as nations. And there is no more fitting location for the Migration Museum than in the heart of the City of London, Britain’s gateway to the world for thousands of years.

The new development at 65 Crutched Friars, which will replace a five-storey, 1980s office building, will also include a mixture of studio apartments and shared accommodation for students.

The 21-storey building will comprise 769 rooms, 35% of which will be classed as affordable housing. It will also see the creation of a new public courtyard fronting onto Northumberland Alley and a new ‘pocket park’ in Rangoon Street.

The siting of the Migration Museum in the Crutched Friars area of the City is not just a long-term affordable site for the museum, but it’s historically relevant as the area has always had a strong migrant history, beginning with the Jewish community following Oliver Cromwell’s invitation for Jews to return to England.

Over the years, through migrant labour and the expansion of the city outside its walls, the area became a centre for trade, including key sites such as the Corn Exchange, and Seething Lane.

As a later example of the area’s role in supporting diversity and integration, in 1773 ‘Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral’ by Phillis Wheatley, the first book by an African American, was published in Aldgate after she could not find a publisher in Boston, Massachusetts.

The planning application for the office development received a lot of letters of support, for its intention to house the Migration Museum, including, amongst many others, from the directors of the Science Museum, Brunswick Arts and the Horniman Museum.

Illustrative image of the potential connection from the Ground Floor to Level 01 in the proposed cultural/community use at 65 Crutched Friars – Source: Planning documents

Office developments often have to provide some sort of societal payback, but there’s been an increasing trend in recent years for large developments to offer space on a peppercorn rent agreement, as the cultural space is seen as desirable by the occupants. Recent examples would include the Cartoon Museum and the Nine Elms concert hall, which were both offered on long-term peppercorn rents to the occupants.

And now, the Migration Museum, which will itself migrate from Lewisham to the City of London.

The new museum will be just around the corner from the soon to open Roman Wall exhibition on Jewry Street, and a short walk from the Tower of London, so there should be plenty of visitors.