Hull Maritime Museum will reopen on Saturday, August 8. It has been shut for over six-and-a-half years, since January 2020.
Beloved favourites are returning, like Erik the Polar Bear and the 119-year-old North Atlantic Right Whale. But the museum is also coming back bigger than ever before. The Queen Victoria Square building’s second floor will be open to the public for the first time.
This level includes a brand new Planetarium, the museum’s scrimshaw display and objects chosen by the public to feature. There is also a new dome-level view of the city centre that visitors can access. See below for pictures of the Maritime Museum as the finishing touches were being put to it ahead of its reopening.
The museum is a key element of the wider Hull: Yorkshire’s Maritime Project, funded by Hull City Council and The National Lottery Heritage Fund. This project has involved not just the museum’s refurbishment, but also restoration of the Guildhall Time Ball, the transformation of Queens Gardens and the restoring of, and making accessible to the public The Artic Corsair and Spurn Lightship ships.
The reopening of the museum has arguably been the most eagerly awaited element of the scheme. Not only because of the wait for the Hull city centre attraction to be ready to open its doors again to the public, but also the scale of the revamp carried out.
In speeches at a media preview day as the last finishing touches were put to the museum, Hull City Council leader Cllr Mike Ross said he wanted to send “a message of thanks to the residents and public of Hull who have waited patiently for the last six years”. He added: “My message to you is it has been worth the wait.”
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