Natural History Museum, Large Vertebrate Store

This project involved the refur­bishment of a 600 sqm Victorian collections store in the basement of the Grade 1 listed Waterhouse Building to provide a 21^st Century storage environment for the museum’s irreplaceable collection of large vertebrate (mammal, reptile and fish) specimens. The collection was carefully decanted from the existing storage fittings, a mixture of crude palette racking and Victorian cabinets, and transported off site to allow the space to be transformed. The existing jack arch and steel beam super­structure was carefully upgraded to provide a two hour fire resisting enclosure, rigorously pest proofed, and re-floored to accept a compac­t­orised storage system that has doubled the capacity of the facility whilst still providing a large open workspace area for scientists, visitors, events and seminars. The new facility was re-opened following a process of returning the specimens to site via a careful quarantine regime.