Southampton's oldest museum has been awarded a £3.5m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) in order to carry out restoration work that will safeguard the attraction's future. Tudor House, which dates back to the late 15th century, is set to undergo an extensive refurbishment programme that will enable the Grade I-listed building and Scheduled Ancient Monument to be removed from the 'Heritage At Risk Register'. The former Tudor merchant

Science Oxford Live, a new cultural centre for science and enterprise in Oxfordshire, has opened to the public following a £250,000 refurbishment. The ground floor of the venue, which has been closed for the last two months while work has been carried out, offers a meeting area, a chill out refreshment area and a permanent exhibition space for adults and older children. A discovery zone for children and families also

Plans for a new museum, gallery and library at the Beaney Institute building in Canterbury has received a £5.98m funding boost from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). The HLF grant will go towards a £11.6m regeneration project that will see the Grade II-listed Beaney Institute receive a new rear extension to create more gallery space. The institute first opened to the public as a museum in 1899 and houses more

The Ulster Hall, a historic 150-year old cultural venue in Belfast, Northern Ireland, has reopened following an extensive multi-million pound refurbishment scheme lasting two years. It is the first scheme to be completed as part of a series of major renovation projects taking place at buildings across the city, with St Malachy's Church, the City Hall and the Ulster Museum set to reopen later this year. Work on the £8.5m

Plans for the restoration and refurbishment of Penarth Pier Pavilion have been revived by Penarth Arts and Crafts Ltd (PACL) after the Vale of Glamorgan Council (VGC) agreed to contribute £800,000 towards the scheme. Last year, the project failed at the final hurdle in a bid to secure £2m funding support from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), but now preparations are being made to submit a new bid later this

A planning application has been submitted for the redevelopment of Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum in Gloucester. The 100-year-old museum, which attracts more than 60,000 visitors each year, will undergo a £5m revamp which will add more than 300sq m of new temporary exhibition space and a new dedicated gallery to house the museum's collection of Dutch, Italian and British masterpieces. Fundraising for the project has begun, with Gloucestershire-based Summerfield

A new museum, designed to act as a symbolic reminder of the Asian tsunami in which more than 200,000 people were killed, has been opened by Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Banda Aceh. Situated on the northern tip of Sumatra, the province of Aceh was devastated by the 2004 disaster, and is considered to be the nearest land point to the epicentre of the earthquake that triggered the destructive

A feasibility study outlining plans to establish a sister site for London's Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum as part of a new waterfront development in Dundee, Scotland, has been discussed at a two-day conference. The independent study, which was commissioned by the Universities of Dundee and Abertay Dundee, Dundee City Council and Scottish Enterprise and carried out by Whetstone Partners and Conran Group, examined the potential impact of the £42m

A developer which has failed to start work on a multi-million redevelopment project in Dorset is to face legal action from Weymouth and Portland Borough Council (WPBC). Howard Holdings was selected from a shortlist of three companies as the preferred developer to lead the revamp of Weymouth Pavilion, but in November was issued with a demand for £23,000 in consultant's fees owed to the council. However, the council says that

The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle, Durham, has received a £250,000 cash injection towards its five-year redevelopment programme from the Garfield Weston Foundation (GWF). Established more than 100 years ago by John and Joséphine Bowes, the French-style château houses thousands of objects, including furniture, paintings and sculptures from across Europe. Work began on the transformation project in 2005, with repairs made to the building's leaky roof. The second and third

Proposals to build a £35m museum at the site of the 16th century Mary Rose warship in Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard have been met with approval by the city council. The permanent museum — designed by architects Wilkinson Eyre and interior designers Pringle Brandon — will house the ship within a structure akin to a black, wooden, jewellery box. Almost 70 per cent of the artefacts (19,000) recovered from the Tudor

A decommissioned German U-boat has opened to the public as a visitor attraction on Liverpool Docks. One of only four remaining in the world, the vessel was acquired by Merseytravel when its previous owner, the Historic Warships Museum in Birkenhead went into voluntary liquidation. The ship has been completely restored and cut into four sections with glass panels at the end of each section to allow visitors the chance to

Plans put forward by seven shortlisted architects for the refurbishment of the Grade II-listed Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool have been put on public display until the end of the month. Designs for the revamp of the 1,250-seat theatre, which has one of the biggest revolve stages outside the West End of London, can be viewed until 27 February in the Architruck, the Royal Institute of British Architect's (RIBA) purpose-built

David Chipperfield Architects has revealed its winning design for an extension to the Kunsthaus Zurich art gallery in Zurich, Switzerland. The early 20th century building will continue to house the Old Masters, Giacometti collection, Swiss art and popular large-scale exhibitions, whereas the new 20,500sq m (220,660sq ft) extension will display classic modernism and art starting from the 1960s, as well as the Bührle collection. Photograph: courtesy if David Chipperfield Architects

The Monument, a memorial built to commemorate the Great Fire of London in 1666, has reopened to the public following multi-million pound restoration project lasting 18 months. A new viewing platform, balustrade and cage have been installed at the 202ft (62m)-high structure as part of the £4.5m scheme, as well as new telescopes and improved lighting. Work has also been carried out to clean The Monument's stonework and to repair

Plans for the £165m refurbishment of Manchester's town hall complex has been given the green light by the city council. The project, which is expected to get underway later this year, has been designed to preserve the area's historic buildings for future generations, as well as improving services for the local community. A new 'Mediatheque' facility will be created as part of the scheme, a series of spaces including cinema

Plans for the £750m transformation of the 468-acre (189.4-hectare) Longbridge site near Birmingham have been given the green light by the government. The Longbridge Area Action Plan (LAAP), which was submitted to the government last March, outlines a 15-year vision for a mixed-use redevelopment of the former MG Rover factory site. At the heart of the scheme is a new town centre incorporating public, leisure and retail facilities, as well

Designs have been unveiled for a landmark oil & gas museum and exhibition centre set to be built in Al Ahmadi, Kuwait for the Kuwait Oil Company. The 8,800sq m exhibition and display centre has been designed by UK-based Architect Morgan Professional Services (MPS) and will be arranged over three floor levels with a viewing tower above. Nine interactive exhibition spaces will form an integral part of the building and

The first part of a £10m expansion programme at the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley has been unveiled. The three-dimensional interactive guidebook called Heart of the Black Country aims to provide visitors with a more in-depth experience by linking the interior of the museum with the open-air site via a mini graphic representation of what there is to see and do at the 26-acre urban heritage park. It includes

The Tempe Historical Museum in Arizona, US, is closing its doors to undergo a US$4.1m redevelopment. Weddle Gilmore Architects (WGA) has been selected as the architectural consultant for the project which will see the main gallery and entrances completely refurbished. According to museum officials, the redevelopment will redefine the exhibit area to feature flexible spaces with changing exhibits; integrate new technology with innovative interpretation; increase programming space; and create a

The Smithsonian Institution has chosen six architectural teams to compete for the £351m ($500m, €391m) contract to design the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, US. Among the finalists are UK-based architects Norman Foster of Foster + Partners in collaboration with URS as well as US-based architects Devrouax & Purnell; Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, which has designed the Museum of Islamic Art in

The design competition for the development of the Brunel Museum in Southwark, London has been won by London-based de Rijke Marsh Morgan Architects (dRMM). The focus of the brief was to make the attraction’s 15m-diameter vent shaft and former stairwell to the Thames Tunnel accessible again since its closure in 1865. Alex de Rijke, director at dRMM, said: “Our proposal consists of several ambitious site-specific responses, inspired by the Brunel

The £2m restoration of the 12th century Westminster Abbey Chapter House in central London, considered as the birthplace of parliament, has begun. The house, which was home to the King's Great Council in 1257 and became a meeting place for the House of Commons in the 14th century, will undergo the most comprehensive restoration project since architect Sir George Gilbert Scott worked on it in 1859. English Heritage is leading

Lincoln's historic Bailgate area is set to be revamped after Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) and the Historic Lincoln Partnership (HLP) secured funding worth £1.18m for the scheme. Work is expected to get underway in early 2010 and will include the repaving of the area, while a new landscape scheme will also be developed for the city's Roman Well and St Paul area. LCC hopes that the improvements will serve a

The City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) has scrapped plans to reopen the city's Usher Hall amid an ongoing £20m revamp due to concerns that such a move could impact upon the project's scheduled completion in July. Both the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) were due to stage events at the venue in May, but delays to the refurbishment of the 95-year-old concert hall have

A new 24m (78.7ft) pedestrian bridge has opened at Caernarfon Castle in North Wales in a bid to improve visitor access to the site. Designed by Ramboll Whitbybird Bridges Team in partnership with Cadw, the Welsh Assembly Government's historic environment agency, the S-shaped bridge will act as the main entrance to the castle, which is one of the most visited ancient monuments in Wales. Alun Ffred Jones, the Welsh minister

A turf-cutting ceremony has marked the start of work on a new £8.2m archive centre in Carlisle, Cumbria, UK, which will eventually house more than one million historical items. The project will include the restoration and renovation of the Grade II-listed Lady Gillford's House at Petteril Bank, as well as the creation of a new glass-fronted structure alongside it to house records currently stored at Carlisle Castle. Cumbria County Council