Museum of Making set to reopen to public after flooding

Derby Museums’ Museum of Making is set to reopen to the public this Friday after being forced to close due to flooding.

In late October, the museum, which is next to the River Derwent, had to temporarily close due to significant flood damage caused by the severe weather conditions of Storm Babet.

Since then, museum staff and professionals have been working alongside insurers to repair the damage caused, with work including a professional deep clean of the entire ground floor, new and repaired equipment in the kitchen and workshops and upgrades to display furniture.

Now, the museum is set to reopen to the public at 10am on Friday.

Tony Butler, executive director at Derby Museums, said: “I’m delighted that the Museum of Making is reopening – our team has worked hard to get back up and running as soon as possible.

“It has been heart-warming for our team to see just how much the museum means to the city and how much our community have missed us.

“I’d like to thank our fantastic supporters, both individuals and the local business community, for your support during this difficult time.”

The Museum of Making building is designed to withstand an element of flooding – but as a result of Storm Babet, water levels reached a record 3.58 metres.

Ahead of the bad weather, staff managed to move a number of items from the ground floor to the upper levels of the building, where the majority of the museum’s collections are housed.

Thanks to their foresight, no objects from the museums’ collections were damaged during the flood.

Following its temporary closure, the Derby Museums team were overwhelmed with offers of support and donations from businesses and the local community – with an appeal in the early days of the closure receiving over 300 donations.

This has enabled Derby Museums to mitigate a substantial amount of costs unrecoverable under its insurance policy.

With the traumatic events of the flood now behind them, staff are now looking forward to welcoming the public back to the Museum of Making, where they can engage with the 30,000 objects on display, including the striking Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine and ‘exploded’ Toyota Corolla car suspended in the Civic Hall.

In addition, the much-anticipated exhibition of a giant scale LEGO model of the Lake District will open to the public.

The model has been created by local artist Jon Tordoff, who in 2020, became inspired by his lifelong interest in LEGO and his love of the Lake District to begin creating one of England’s most famous landscapes out of LEGO bricks.

Visitors on opening weekend can also expect to see some changes in the museum.

The Old Shop gallery has been rehung with new flatworks, a particular highlight being a painting of the Acropolis of Athens, formerly hung in the now closed Acropolis café – Derby’s oldest café at the time of its closure last July.

Families will notice brand new on-gallery making activities, free for all to enjoy, a LEGO Minifigure trail and drop-in activities taking place over the opening weekend.

Curators and volunteers will also be on gallery with object handling, allowing visitors to get hands-on with Derby’s history.

To find out more about what’s happening at the Museum of Making, visit https://derbymuseums.org/museum-of-making/whats-on/ .