Sunderland City Council gives big update on attraction's two-year closure for massive redevelopment

Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens is set for a major revamp as part of an estimated £13.6 million, four-year project to permanently transform the site.

The project follows a successful bid of £5.2 million from The National Lottery Heritage Fund supporting the project, which will transform the Grade II-listed site as library services move to the new Culture House venue at Keel Square later this year.

The project is also being supported by significant investment from the council alongside a package of funding support from Arts Council England – Museums, Estates and Development Fund (MEND) and The Friends of Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens.

The museum plans, which were initially discussed by councillors at an Economic Prosperity Scrutiny Committee meeting back in January, 2025, and granted planning approval by the council’s Planning and Highways Committee later the same year, include a raft of changes.

This includes the relocation of the site’s main entrance into Mowbray Park, new exhibition galleries and displays and brand new touch-down and social spaces, as well as improvements to the winter gardens, external landscaping and the public realm.

The project also received a further funding boost earlier this year (2026) thanks to a £500,000 grant from the Wolfson Foundation, an independent grant-giving charity with a focus on research and education.

The Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens redevelopment was the focus of part of Sunderland City Council’s latest Economic Prosperity Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday (February 10, 2026 ) during a presentation on cultural developments across Wearside.

A presentation to councillors confirmed that the “museum closure/decant period” would potentially be from “November 2026 onwards” and that there would be a “four-year activity plan reaching into all communities of Sunderland”.

While the museum is being redeveloped, it was noted there would be “collection improvement work” around areas such as “access, storage, recording and conservation” and “off-site museum activity across other cultural venues” ranging from the Culture House and Arts Centre Washington, to Creative Smart City Hubs in Houghton and Washington amongst others.

Trina Murphy, senior manager for museum redevelopment, told councillors the revamped museum would include a number of new staff and that city-wide activities were planned during the redevelopment, including different events and activities and working with artists around “co-creating” projects.

Estimated timescales for the museum project were also mentioned at the scrutiny meeting and it was noted that the “brand new museum” was expected to reopen at the “back end of 2028”, with project funding continuing in subsequent years.

Councillors were told that the majority of the museum’s collection would stay on site during the redevelopment works, with efforts under way to explore how the collection can be protected and where it can be stored while construction works take place.

Other plans linked to the redevelopment, outlined in a presentation to councillors, included measures to improve the museum’s “organisational sustainability”.

This includes introducing “new income streams” with some “chargeable activity but carefully balanced with offering a range of free opportunities to ensure no one is excluded,” as well as “refreshed merchandise” and a “remodelled retail and catering offer”.

Other plans include “giving new opportunities to our staffing team, rolling out new training models and better induction for volunteers [and] advocacy opportunities amongst cultural and heritage sector.”

Sunderland City Council, in a statement after the scrutiny meeting, said that “specific closure dates have yet to be confirmed”.

However, council culture chiefs stressed there would still be museum provision in the city when major redevelopment works take place, including pop-up events and the potential hosting of museum activities in other cultural venues.

Councillor Beth Jones, the council’s cabinet member for communities, culture and tourism at Sunderland City Council, who attended the scrutiny meeting, said the local authority would share more information about “how people can get involved as part of the activity plan” as plans “continue to take shape”.

“This is a very exciting time for our much-loved museum and winter gardens now that we are moving ahead with some of the key practical steps in its redevelopment, and it was good to be able to share more of the plans at this week’s meeting,” Cllr Jones said.

“There’s still a lot to do behind the scenes but we’re really looking forward to taking museum activities out to venues across the city when the time comes for the works to get under way.

“A key part of the redevelopment project is the four-year activity plan, which is still in its early stages but will allow museum activity to continue even when the building itself is closed for major improvements.

“Although specific closure dates have yet to be confirmed, the activities will include everything from pop-up, city-wide ‘museum on the road’ sessions designed to reach into communities across Sunderland, to potentially hosting museum activity at a range of cultural venues including at Culture House, Arts Centre Washington and in our newly refurbished libraries in Houghton and Washington.

“We’re also looking to collect people’s memories of Sunderland through a new oral histories project, as well as creating more opportunities for our budding young museum curators and developing plans to work with young people from schools across the city.

“We will continue to share information on the redevelopment, including details of where museum activity will be taking place and how people can get involved as part of the activity plan, as the plans continue to take shape.”

Supporting documents submitted with previous council planning applications for the site, and more recent announcements, have set out the proposed key changes and planned new attractions at the museum.

The new museum entrance area is set to overlook Mowbray Park with a “shop window” feature exhibit featuring the famous Nissan Bluebird, which would be visible from outside the museum.

Ground floor plans include a relocated reception desk and museum shop linked to this entrance, new toilets to serve the nearby Learning Space and Growing Space and new gallery fit outs.

This includes “Window on Wearside” which would feature “vibrant displays of star objects and new favourites, tactiles, interactives and AVs to enjoy Sunderland’s story of sports, music, events and more”.

The space which previously housed the city library would become “Sunderland Story” under the redevelopment plans, allowing visitors to “connect with the river and land to explore the innovative and industrious history of Sunderland from its very beginning” through “mass displays of early archaeology, ship models and mining lanterns, interactive games and stories”.

The new Growing Space area, based in the glazed area facing Burdon Road which currently houses the museum shop, aims to serve as a “focal point for communities to discover how to live sustainably” and as “a space for collaboration, participation, and working together”.

It would feature a huge “central island tree sculpture” overhanging circular modular tables and chairs and would be a “programmable, multi-audience space to learn about the environment, growing and sustainability”, with provision for “fun and messy play [and] provision for live plants”.

Other spaces previously mentioned in planning documents included ‘The Hold’, an open storage display where “visitors can step into the ‘stores’ and explore collections from a new perspective”.

In addition, the museum’s 20th Century Gallery is expected to be updated to “reflect life in the 21st Century” with a “new series of displays capturing a true sense of Sunderland’s community today by inviting communities to co-create the displays.”

Previous council planning documents confirmed that proposed internal alterations and additions have been “carefully considered and designed so as to minimise impact to the historic structure and fabric”.

It was noted that proposed external works would also “preserve the significance of the Grade II-listed museum” and “retain a prominent landmark” and would not affect the “character, appearance, nor integrity of the listed building.”

More information on the temporary closure of Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, and the programme of museum activities, is expected to be revealed by the council in future.