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

A scheme to redevelop a historic pumphouse in Llanelli, South Wales, has been handed a funding boost worth £1.8m from the Welsh Assembly Government. Development proposals for the preservation and restoration of the Grade II-listed building form part of a wider £250m regeneration of the town's North Dock and waterfront areas. The project, which will be carried out by Bendigo 9-10, will see the pumphouse transformed into a new restaurant

Work is to get underway on a £400,000 scheme to restore the 40-year-old Apollo Pavilion in Peterlee, County Durham. Located in the town's Sunny Blunts Park, the pavilion was named after the Apollo space mission and was designed by the artist Victor Pasmore as a symbol of 1960s simplicity. Having become a target for vandalism in recent years, the pavilion project will see the replacement of a staircase providing access

Work has got underway on a three-month project to create new visitor facilities at the Angel of the North in Gateshead, north east England. Gateshead Council agreed to proposals in early 2008, which included the creation of new parking and toilet facilities at the visitor attraction, along with new footpaths. It is expected that work will be completed by April, and will see the new facilities located well back from

The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle, County Durham, is set to complete its revamp during the year and will reopen to the public on 14 February. The redevelopment work will be completed in stages and finished phases include the revamp of the Entrance Hall, with a more user friendly reception desk; a new glass corridor leading people to the upgraded Café Bowes; and the extension of the museum's retail facilities.

Science Oxford has closed for two months to allow work to get underway on a £250,000 refurbishment of the centre, which is expected to take two months. The project includes the upgrade and relocation of the children's science gallery, as well as the integration of a refreshment area into the ground floor adult exhibition space, and the installation of new audio-visual equipment in the first floor performance room. Leicester-based museum

A new scheme to preserve ten iconic cultural heritage sites in Wales is set to benefit from a £2m cash injection from the Welsh Assembly Government. Funding for the Welsh Cultural Heritage Initiative will be set aside from the Welsh Assembly Government's Strategic Capital Investment Fund, and will also go towards making the ten sites safe and accessible for visitors. Seven sites to be included as part of the scheme

One of the oldest museums in Britain, the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archeology at Oxford University, is to close the public until November 2009 as part of a major redevelopment project. First opened in 1683, the museum is undergoing a £61m revamp including the creation of a new 8,812sq m (94,852sq ft) exhibition hall, which will double the amount of available display space at the attraction. The museum has

A planning application is to be submitted as part of a £6m project to transform the General Offices at a former South Wales steelworks into a new visitor attraction. The scheme to redevelop the Grade-II listed building at The Works:Ebbw Vale is a joint venture partnership between Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council and the Welsh Assembly Government. Once the administrative centre of the steelworks, the General Offices building is the

Hadrian's Wall Heritage (HWH) has acquired 150 acres (60.7 hectares) of land at Camp Farm in Maryport, Cumbria, as part of plans to establish a new museum at the World Heritage Site. The £11.5m scheme will involve the excavation of the former Roman fort at Maryport, as well as an adjacent vicus, a civilian settlement that spread outside the fort walls and comprised more than 170 buildings. It is hoped

The €40m (£35.9, $53.4m) development of the Hermitage Amsterdam (HA) museum, located within the restored 17th century Amstelhof building, has entered the final phase of construction. Due to open in June 2009, the museum will become an exhibition venue for Russian art, displaying over 1,800 artifacts brought over from the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia. The 9.925sq m (107,000sq ft) Amstelhof, a former listed nursing home, is being

Plans for the redevelopment of the 104-year old Grand Pier in Weston-super-Mare have been submitted to North Somerset Council (NSC), five months after the attraction was severely damaged by fire. Bristol-based architect, Angus Meek, was appointed in October by pier owners, Kerry and Michelle Michael, following a design competition for the new pavilion, which will replace the one destroyed in July's blaze. Since the original concept design was unveiled, several

The city council of Mobile, Alabama, US, has announced plans to build a new museum in the city. The US$36m, 90,000sq ft National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico will include exhibits on local history, marine archeology, deep sea exploration and modern shipbuilding. City governors have appointed Hoar Construction to oversee construction of the attraction.

Designs for the redevelopment of Gwyn Hall in Neath, South Wales, which was severely damaged by fire, have been unveiled by Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council (NPTCBC). A public consultation has now been launched by the council to allow local residents to have their say on Holder Mathias Architects' proposals for the venue, which was undergoing a £4m refurbishment at the time of the fire on 18 October last

Construction work on the Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate, Kent, has begun but the opening will be delayed until 2011. The new gallery, designed by architect David Chipperfield, will exhibit contemporary art and celebrates the town's connect with artist JMW Turner, who was schooled in Margate and later lived there. The attraction, which has been in the pipeline for 15 years, was originally expected to open in 2010. Kent-based contractor

Owners of the Fetternear Estate, near Kemnay, in Scotland have submitted an outline planning application for a mixed-use development and the restoration of Bishops Palace to Aberdeenshire Council. The plans to redevelop disused farm land and restore the listed building, built in 1329, in collaboration with Scottish Heritage, have been created in partnership with Hardie Planning Consultancy and Leslie F Hunter Chartered Architects. If approved, the site will host a

Plans to redevelop the derelict Lowther Castle and Gardens near Penrith, Cumbria, into a new £15m tourist attraction have received a major funding boost worth £9m. The Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) will contribute £7m towards the scheme, while an additional £2m is also being put forward by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). An application has also been made to the Heritage Lottery Fund for the remaining £6m, but

The Lune Aqueduct in Lancaster is to receive a £3m facelift. The plans, drawn up by British Waterways North West, involve relining the canal channel; repaving both sides of the canal along the aqueduct and rebuilding walls along the turning basin among other restoration work. However, British Waterways also held a public consultation at Lancaster’s Maritime Museum to discuss further plans to be included. Some of the ideas discussed included

A 400m (1,312ft) stretch of Brighton's seafront is set to be given a heritage-style makeover as part of a £300,000 improvement project along the city's Madeira Drive. New bollards and railings will be installed and the pavement widened, as part of work to protect seafront arches underneath the thoroughfare which can no longer take the weight of heavy vehicles parking on top of them. In September, a £250,000 scheme to

Developer Dubai Properties is building a £255m museum, dedicated to Middle Eastern modern art as the centre piece of its £8bn Cultural Village project in Dubai, UAE. The 25,000 sq m Museum of Middle East Modern Art (MOMEMA), designed by Amsterdam-based architects UN Studio, will include exhibition spaces, art galleries, leasable workshop spaces, an auditorium and an amphitheatre for live performances and international festivals. MOMEMA will also feature a 60-room

Owners of the Grand Pier in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, have announced their preferred design for the redevelopment of the 104-year old attraction. Bristol-based architect, Angus Meek, was selected after a design competition for the pier, which was severely damaged by a large fire in July. Designs for the future of the Grade-II listed structure were unveiled by six architects at the start of October, before being put to public consultation. A

Glasgow's new £74m Riverside Museum is starting to take shape with the construction of the building's steel framework now underway. The site, which will be the new home of Glasgow's Museum of Transport, is at the centre of a wider £800m regeneration project for the city's harbour. Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, work on the Riverside Museum is being carried out by the main contractor, HBG. The project is being

The Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC) has announced that Saadiyat Beach Golf Course in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, is on track to open in autumn 2009. The 18-hole course, designed by golf champion Gary Player to be 'eco-sensitive', could be the first attraction to open as part of the 15-year, A Dhs.100 billion (£15bn, US$ 27bn) Saadiyat Island development. Translated to mean Island of Happiness, the project is