The Wellcome Trust is investing £17.5 million in creating new spaces and improving facilities for Wellcome Collection. One of our key ambitions is to develop a more immersive experience for visitors who want to explore our themes in greater depth.

Stirling Prize-winning architects Wilkinson Eyre will expand the venue and connect the new public spaces using a dramatic spiral staircase. The improvements, which are due to begin in August 2013 and finish in summer 2014, will offer spaces for:

Seeing – There will be 30 per cent more gallery space and a new thematic gallery showing year-long exhibitions with changing displays and activities.

Doing – A new studio will allow the programme of live activity to expand and include more high-quality activities produced by 14-to-19-year-olds.

Delving – The iconic Wellcome Library Reading Room will be transformed into a showpiece for the building. There you can explore Henry Wellcome’s extraordinary collections and exchange ideas.

Indulging – Beside the Reading Room will be a new restaurant, perfect for relaxing and refreshing with friends and colleagues.

Researching – The Wellcome Library will continue to offer an outstanding environment for researchers, with an expanded Rare Materials Room and new study spaces. Soon we will also unveil our plans for a new Hub for interdisciplinary research on the 5th floor, and a new Spotlight events programme to encourage expert engagement.

 

Curiouser and curiouser

Wellcome Collection has become one of the fastest-growing cultural spaces in London. We now receive half a million visits a year and remain hugely grateful to our visitors, who are at the heart of our success.

Since opening, we’ve staged 17 major temporary exhibitions – including Skeletons, Dirt, High Society and Brains – alongside a varied weekly events programme.

The highlights of our first five years include Jennifer Sutton seeing her heart on display in The Heart exhibition, Bobby Baker leading a ‘Peas Protest’, Billy Bragg writing and performing the soundtrack for our gig/play/installation Pressure Drop, visitors sewing pigskin at our ‘Flesh’ event, two million people playing our online games Axon and High Tea, a ‘Feast to Cure Melancholy’ in the Library Reading Room, live surgery and live tattooing. The full list is dizzying.

We’ve invited you to walk, talk, listen, debate, laugh, cry, shout, sing and think. Wellcome Collection is a curious place to be, and it’s only going to get curiouser.

Find out more: your questions answered.

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Read our press release.