Stockton Preston Park Museum to be transformed into 'rival' attraction

The museum hopes to work with sites in London to bring exhibitions to Stockton

Multimillion-pound plans to redevelop a park museum into a "rival" attraction will be submitted to a council.

Stockton's Preston Park Museum is planning to build a large exhibition space, a larger car park and make improvements to the café and toilets.

The improved site, which will display "rarely seen" artefacts, will open in 2025, if plans are approved.

Museum manager Sara Fortune said it would display items and exhibitions from London museums.

"We've already been in conversation with the likes of the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum," she said.

"To get works of art or objects that are only ever seen in London up in the Tees Valley would be absolutely amazing."

Ms Fortune said she believed "we should be bringing it here" as a day trip to London is "unattainable for a lot of people".

Stockton Council's Reuben Kench, Preston Park Museum manager Sara Fortune and Stockton councillor Steve Nelson

The plans involve the construction of a glass-fronted building on less well-used land in the grounds, which will link to existing buildings, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Meanwhile, a toilet block targeted by vandals will be pulled down and the size of the car park will double in size.

The project will be financed with £12.4m from the government's Levelling Up fund and £237,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

"We want to be able to create a unique contemporary space to rival the larger well-known museums nationally," Reuben Kench, Stockton Council's director of community services, environment and culture, said.

"That presents opportunities to do things which no-one else is doing and you couldn't otherwise enjoy."

Mr Kench said it would showcase exhibits that had never been seen on Teesside, while creating jobs and raising the museum's profile.

He said: "We've got hundreds of thousands of items which rarely see the light of day... we're not putting rope to keep people 6ft away from things."

Plans for the first phase, which will cover the building, car park and main entrance, are due to go to Stockton Council on 5 July.