Wright and Wright Architects to design the Tomorrow gallery
The ground floor of the Science Museum in London is to undergo a transformation over the next five years with the opening of three new free galleries exploring space, stories of the science of today and the history of invention.
The ground floor of the Science Museum in London is to undergo a transformation over the next five years with the opening of three new free galleries exploring space, stories of the science of today and the history of invention.
As part of the changes, the 40-year-old Exploring Space gallery will close after the Easter holidays. It will be replaced by a new Space gallery in autumn 2025 in the museum’s West Hall.
The new displays will include two human flown spacecraft (Apollo 10 and Soyuz), the radio headset used by Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, and a full-size testing model of BepiColombo, the spacecraft expected to arrive on Mercury in 2026.
The Science Museum declined to reveal the cost of any of the new galleries but said the Space exhibition would be self-funded.
The second gallery, Tomorrow: The Bennet Gallery, is being supported by the Peter Bennett Foundation, UKRI and the Julia Rausing Trust. It will open in early 2027 exploring current scientific research, including science tackling plastic pollution, gene editing technology and experiments to investigate black holes.
Wright and Wright Architects will design the Tomorrow gallery, taking in the museum’s historic architecture with a widened gallery entrance.
The third new gallery is still subject to fundraising but should open before 2030. The Ages of Invention will showcase hundreds of exceptional and everyday objects connected to significant developments in science, technology and engineering – from the growth of mass manufacturing and the discovery of synthetic materials to understanding general relativity and measuring climate change.
The three galleries will provide almost 3,500 sq metres of public gallery space.
Ian Blatchford, director and chief executive of the Science Museum Group, is now the longest serving head of the organisation, having been in post for 14 years.
“Through the imagination and dedication of extraordinary colleagues and our board of trustees we have achieved much, but our focus is firmly on the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead, not least in delivering these new galleries at the Science Museum which will inspire and excite our visitors during this decade and beyond,” he said in a statement.
Tomorrow: The Bennet Gallery at Science Museum
Following a competitive open call, Wright & Wright has been awarded the prestigious Science Museum Group contract to design and deliver the new Tomorrow: The Bennet Gallery at the Museum in central London. The gallery and exhibition design project marks a pivotal moment in the museum's ongoing mission to engage and inspire audiences with the wonders of contemporary science, technology, and innovation.