Council seeks funds for urgent museum upgrades

Portsmouth City Council owns and operates several museums in the city

Museums in Portsmouth are to be cleared out and reorganised in an effort to help bring long-buried finds back into the public eye.

Documents being presented to Portsmouth City Council have said the main collections store for Portsmouth museums, located at Hilsea, requires "urgent upgrades" and is currently unfit for purpose.

Until 2018, the natural history collection had been without a curator for 30 years, leading to parts of the collection now being difficult to access and damaged by pests.

The council, which runs the museums, say they will be recruiting for a new collections manager to lead the project, as well as new volunteers to help with basic cataloguing and conservation.

Old cannons which can no longer be maintained may also be offloaded, according to council documents, and some cannons which have been lent out to other locations for decades may not be sought for return.

Councillor Steve Pitt, leader of Portsmouth City Council, said: "At the heart of this plan is our commitment to making our collections as accessible as possible.

"To support this goal, we are exploring funding opportunities to upgrade our existing storage facility in Hilsea, ensuring it meets modern standards for accessibility and preservation."

The council hopes to eventually create a new storage site at Lumps Fort, near canoe lake, on the seafront in Portsmouth.