Newcastle Discovery Museum could be moved

A decades-old science and history museum housed in a 19th Century Co-op building could be relocated.

Newcastle's Grade II-listed Discovery Museum is said to be in a "serious state of decline".

Newcastle City Council said it would need significant refurbishment to stay on the current site and could instead move to an empty shop or new building.

But director of place Michelle Percy said the museum had "a role to play and it will stay in the city".

She said: "It is not about the museum disappearing, it is just about its location, how it is operated, and how we make that offer better and more accessible to all of the city."

The museum became the country's first science museum outside London when it opened in 1934 in Exhibition Park, known then as the Municipal Museum of Science and Industry.

It then moved to the Co-operative Wholesale Society's Blandford House in 1978 and was relaunched in 1993 after a £13m revamp.

The museum is home to some of north-east England's most prized historical artefacts including Charles Parsons' Turbinia, the first ship to be powered by steam turbines and once the fastest vessel in the world.

The council was awarded a grant for almost £150,000 from the North of Tyne Combined Authority earlier this year to consider its future, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The authority said at the time the existing building was "in a serious state of decline and urgently in need of investment".

It said this week the museum was an "important part of the city's cultural scene" and a popular visitor attraction.

"Given the fondness the public have for the museum we will ensure they have every opportunity to contribute their views at every stage of the process," a spokesperson said.

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