Migration Museum to relocate from Lewisham to new City of London home

The Migration Museum has been given the green light for a permanent home in the City of London.

The City of London’s planning sub-committee has approved plans for a new development at 65 Crutched Friars, which will provide a permanent home for the Migration Museum on the first three floors of a new student accommodation development.

The Migration Museum is currently based in a temporary venue in Lewisham shopping centre, where it welcomes 7,000 visitors a month to its exhibitions, events and learning programmes.

The museum hopes to remain in Lewisham until at least 2025-26 while it launches a capital fundraising campaign to raise up to £15m to support the move.

The new venue, a stone’s throw from Aldgate, Fenchurch Street and the Tower of London, will provide a purpose-built permanent home for Britain’s first museum exploring the movement of people to and from the UK.

The new museum will encompass interactive temporary and permanent exhibition galleries, flexible event and education space, outdoor areas for programming and a cafe and restaurant.

Sophie Henderson, chief executive of the Migration Museum, said: “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 are – as individuals, as communities and as nations.

“Now more than ever we need an inspiring space for diverse audiences from across London, Britain and beyond to come together to explore, discuss and reflect on key questions around migration, identity and belonging.

“And there is no more fitting location for the Migration Museum than the heart of the City of London, Britain’s gateway to the world for thousands of years.

“Our temporary venue in Lewisham has been a space of real development and reflection for us.

“We have been welcomed by local communities with open arms and remain hugely committed to continuing our work within the borough.”

Pictured top: An artist’s visualisation of the new permanent Migration Museum (Picture: Migration Museum)