Science Museum Group’s Hawking Collns Centre

Rebecca Atkinson, Science Museum Group collections centre unveils name as it opens to public, Museums Association, 11 October 2024

More than 300,000 objects are housed in the publicly accessible Hawking Building near Swindon.

The new facility has a footprint of 27,000 square meters Science Museum Group.

The Science Museum Group (SMG) has officially opened its purpose-built collections centre to the public. The facility, which has been named the Hawking Building after the late theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, houses about 80% of SMG’s collection from across its five sites.

Located in the Science and Innovation Park in Wiltshire, the new facility has a footprint of 27,000 square meters – equivalent to 600 double deck buses – and boosts 30 kilometres of shelving.

At its centre is “the grid”, where about 200 large freestanding objects are arranged in colourful and spacious parking bays designed by Sam Jacobs studio. The biggest object on open display is a five metre-tall Glasgow tramcar from 1901.

The rest of the 300,000-plus objects now housed in the facility are grouped by collection type, and are stored on open racking systems and in smaller shelving units on a mezzanine level. The building also contains laboratories, research areas and photography studios.

The SMG will host its first public tour of the Hawking Building today, with school trips and researcher visits commencing next week. As part of the move, the Science Museum Group has digitised 50% of its collection and implemented a barcode system that will allow staff and members of the public to easily find objects online collection.

The facility was named in honour of Hawking after the scientist’s Cambridge University office contents were acquired by the SMG through the UK Government’s Acceptance in Lieu scheme in 2021.

Speaking at a launch event, Tim Hawking, Stephen’s son, said the facility was a fitting tribute to his father. “His collection might not have survived if not for this building and the work that goes on inside,” he added. “No other museum in the world could have done a better job to safeguard and ensure access to his and other important archive material for future generations.”

Also speaking at the event, the SMG director and chief executive, Ian Blatchford, said the Hawking Building was a blueprint for future museum storage facilities.

“The first public tours of the Hawking Building mark a significant milestone in the transformation of how we research and share our internationally significant collection with the world” Blatchford said.

“Thanks to generous funding and support from HM Treasury and DCMS, more than 300,000 historic objects have moved to this state-of-the-art facility that sets new standards in environmentally sustainable collections care.”