Bristol's M Shed gets extra £1.39m from lottery fund

Developers found additional problems at the old transit shed site

A multi-million pound museum project in Bristol has been given a further £1.39m by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

The additional grant was made to the M Shed to cover "unforeseen costs" including removing contaminated waste from the site on Bristol's harbourside.

Foundations also had to be redesigned and the building's original concrete framework needed extensive repairs.

M Shed, which is due to open two years late on 17 June, has already received £10.2m from the HLF.

The museum was supposed to open in July 2009 and cost £19m but the total bill is now expected to reach £27m.

Julie Finch, head of museums and archives in Bristol, said: "The HLF decision recognises the difficulties we have had with a number of unforeseen elements associated with the major challenge of restoring a 1950s harbourside transit shed and transforming it into a 21st Century state-of-the-art museum."

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has given M Shed about £600,000 a year for the past three years.

Working exhibits

The completed museum will have three galleries with objects and stories illustrating the city's past.

It is being built on the site of the former Industrial Museum in Prince's Wharf on Wapping Road.

The museum was given the name M Shed after a 1950s transit shed which occupied the site then.

There will also be working exhibits outside including steamboats, trains and cranes and a new cafe that will open out onto a public square on the dockside.