Preston's Harris Museum re-opening after major refurbishment

It might have undergone the biggest refurbishment in its 132-year history, but when Preston’s Harris Museum reopens its doors on Sunday, visitors familiar with the landmark building will find that the revolution has been a respectful one.

The four-year revamp has, according to those behind it, sought to preserve what made the Grade I-listed venue so special in the first place – while also bringing it into the 21st century to meet the expectations of a modern-day audience.

The guiding principle of the £19m overhaul was always to create the country’s first ‘blended’ museum, art gallery and library – and for Preston City

Council’s cabinet member for culture and arts, Anna Hindle, the realisation of that vision has made The Harris a “more friendly” place to be.

“You won’t just have art in the art gallery and…the museum [exhibits] in the museum – it’s all mixed up.  So you’ll find library books throughout the [building].

“I think when you hear about it, it’s hard to visualise…but it just brings it all alive,” said Cllr Hindle, speaking during a sneak preview for the media ahead of the weekend’s ticket-only, sell-out relaunch.

Meanwhile, the authority’s head of arts and culture, Timothy Joel, says the balance that has been struck between the best of The Harris’ past and its new-look future has exceeded even his own high hopes for what was possible.

“It’s the jewel in Preston’s crown – it means so much to so many people.  Everyone has a memory of The Harris – be that coming in as a child or coming in with their family [or] a school group.

“So…all of the favourites are here. We’ve not changed the essence of the building – the stone columns, the marble floors; Pauline in the Yellow Dress [The Harris’ most popular painting] is still here.

“But we’ve also switched things up – we’ve improved [the] spaces, we’ve made it lighter…brighter [and] easier to navigate.    So it’s a must see for people.

“In our displays, [we have been] able to put young people at the front and centre of what we’re doing and…diversify the collections and the stories that we tell, so that we can really represent the communities of Preston and Lancashire and those rich stories coming through in these opening displays.

“But, of course, these…will last for 12-18 months and then we’ll be changing to new stories, new narratives,” Timothy explained.

It is hoped that the number of visitors attracted to the newly-renovated space will swell by around 100,000 a year compared to pre-pandemic levels, to reach around 450,000.

Asked by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) whether there was a risk that The Harris had slipped from the public consciousness during its four-year shutdown, Timothy said he was confident that the attraction’s long-established status would ensure that the reopening was a sustained success.

“There’s a real love and passion for The Harris – [and] we have done a lot of engagement work throughout [the] closure…with our communities and our visitors.

“The Harris really is regionally significant as a venue…but also it’s got a national reputation. So I think we will absolutely achieve that visitor target, not only for Lancashire and Preston residents, but also for visitors from far and wide as well,” Timothy added.

Meanwhile, Preston City Council leader Matthew Brown says he believes the reopened Harris will be another magnet to attract people into an evolving city centre, which has this year been buoyed by the opening of the Animate cinema and leisure complex just yards from the museum – and which will soon see the opening of the new Vault Youth Zone.

He told the LDRS that the refurbishment of the venue was undoubtedly “worth” the local authority cash that had been invested – around £5m from the city and county councils, with the majority coming from Preston – to complement other funding sources such as the national lottery.

“We want to make things happen – we want to get involved and make things better for our community.

“We expect [The Harris] to have a very different feel [and]…be more interactive – it’s going to be amazing.

“I think this will actually make people happy to come into the city centre, [where] they can have an experience, feel good about things [and] see this creative hub that we have here,” Cllr Brown said.

Eighty-eight percent of the construction suppliers for the refurbishment were based within a 30-mile radius of Preston, something which the council leader said reflected the authority’s commitment to using local firms wherever possible and “really trying to benefit everyone within our community” when it came to regeneration.

BACK TO BASICS

The redesign of The Harris has its roots in the principles that underpinned a gallery created in the museum for the last Preston Guild back in 2012.

Neal Charlton, from lead architects Buttress – which was responsible for both projects – told the LDRS that the ‘Discover Preston’ installation delivered 13 years ago had acted as “a life-size template for the rest of the building” when refurbishment work began nearly a decade later.

“Everything from the way that we heat the building, vent the building, the way that it’s decorated, [to] how we finish the floors,” he explained.

Neal says that one of his primary preoccupations during the more recent scheme was to ensure that it enhanced the “strong architectural presence” of the venue.

“We always say that this building…[has] got a great set of bones to work with. But it was really important that we stripped it back and took the spaces back to their former grandeur.

”[There are] very modern fittings, but those still take cognisance from the space around [them], so they’re not so high that they impose in the space.

“It was so important that we took this historic building and kept it as the museum, art gallery and library that it was originally envisaged to be, but reimagining that in a new space which puts all of those things together.

“So in the children’s [library], we’re able to see exhibition cases with artifacts in them [and] first-edition books, [as well as] sculptures [and] paintings all within the space – but it’s still about the love of books.”

The project was hit with several delays caused by issues including the discovery of more asbestos than had been expected to have to be dealt with – but for Neal, the biggest hurdle posed by the refit was the logistics of getting all the way up to the roof to replace the central lantern.

“There [was] almost £1m worth of scaffolding [needed] to get to every space within the building, so that was quite challenging,” he recalled.

‘WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THIS THEN, LAD?

Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park has been handed the honour of cutting the ribbon on the refurbished Harris Museum at its grand reopening on Sunday (28th September).

A fitting choice not only with him being a born-and-bred Prestonian, but also because his legendary clay creations have taken pride of place as the headline exhibition.

In ‘A Case at the Museum’, visitors will be able to see the real stop-motion models used in the films, props and storyboards – as well as  life-sized recreation of the lovable duo’s sitting room.

Pulling up a pew in that familiar scene, Nick joked that it felt like he had “eaten too much cheese” and was “having some weird dream”.

“I do have to pinch myself,” he said of being invited to relaunch The Harris, which he described as a “focal point” both for Preston and also his younger self as an aspiring animator.

“I would often go [and] just to walk around for inspiration – and as a kid, I just loved seeing all the historic artefacts from the area.   I always found it inspiring to find out about the history.

“Plus, the library – it was before the internet, so I would go and get books out on anything I could find on animation or film-making and I would read them from cover to cover,” Nick remembered.

Reflecting on the city of Preston of today compared to the then town he left in 1978 to head off to college in Sheffield, he said that while it had “obviously..moved forward in many ways”, there was something he found very familiar on his many return trips – the people, whom he credits with influencing some aspects of his two most famous characters.

“There’s a friendliness…and there’s a humour as well.   A lot of the humour, I think, in Wallace and Gromit comes from there.  I can’t always define it – it’s…understated… or there’s often the subtlety [to it],” Nick said.

Asked by the LDRS about what the future might hold for the two of them, he said:  “I like them to keep going. They’re kind of evergreen now – and it’s great to have characters that respond to each other all the time.

“You could put them in any situation [and] they’d make it funny.”

He said the key ingredient was having “the ideas” needed to make the long process of traditional animation “worthwhile”.

As to whether any plots are currently germinating in his mind for the pair, he added “I can’t help [it]…I’m always thinking about them.”

And what might Wallace say if he could see his and Gromit’s adventures as the centrepiece of a relaunched Harris Museum?

“It’s absolutely cracking – every bit,” Nick suggested with a smile. “And Gromit would probably just want a stiff cup of tea.”

THE EGYPTIAN CONNECTION

The Harris’ famed Egyptian gallery which runs around the top of the building will be complemented upon the venue’s reopening by new installations exploring the shared histories between Preston and Egypt.

They have been created by acclaimed Egyptian artist Khaled Hafez, who spent more than two years researching the links.

He told the LDRS that cotton was one of the primary threads connecting the two places – as well as involvement in the two world wars.

“Since the commission is from the Imperial War Museum for the permanent collection [at] the Harris…I had to weave something between the relationship between Preston [and]…the areas where there were mills working with Egyptian cotton.

“I was looking for common histories between Egypt and…that part of the United Kingdom.   So you will find in this commission [that] it’s divided into several…elements. The personal history is through the silk screen and through my parents, who are both in the medical core of the Egyptian army,” Khaled explained.

He has created “military iconography” on the walls alongside some of the building’s staircases which match that used within the silk screen.