{"id":693690,"date":"2026-07-15T21:35:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T21:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/693690\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T21:35:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T21:35:17","slug":"tower-of-london-to-open-historic-architectural-archive-to-the-public-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/693690\/","title":{"rendered":"Tower of London to open historic architectural archive to the public for the first time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Tower of London\u2019s architectural archives will be opened to the public for the first time as part of a revamp of the Tower\u2019s educational facilities.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/seymour-tseng-o4OF3c6BkxU-unsplash-tower-of-london.jpg\" class=\"lightbox\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-91156 leaderimagetop\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/seymour-tseng-o4OF3c6BkxU-unsplash-tower-of-london.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1200\" data-eio=\"p\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>When it opens, the new Archive Study Centre will bring together more than 25,000 drawings encompassing over 200 years of design, building and conservation work across the Tower and other palaces cared for by Historic Royal Palaces.<\/p>\n<p>The decision to open the archives is part of a wider revamp of Historic Royal Palaces (HRP)\u2019s education and learning at the Tower of London to encourage more schoolchildren to visit.<\/p>\n<p>New facilities designed by Jamie Fobert Architects will include two new learning centres, dedicated spaces for community use, the Archive Study Centre, and a green classroom that will sit inside the Moat.<\/p>\n<p>The HRP expects that the new buildings will allow it to lift its school visits to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ianvisits.co.uk\/venues\/tower-of-london\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tower of London<\/a> from 125,000 to 200,000 annually. The Tower also provides funding to support schools\u2019 travel costs to get to the Tower, and next year\u2019s applications <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrp.org.uk\/schools\/access-fund-for-schools\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">open in September<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Located on the Wharf in a former cafe, the new Weston Learning &amp; Community Centre will become the starting point for hundreds of schools and community groups each year on their visit to the Tower.<\/p>\n<p>Inside the tower, the historic Waterloo Block will be adapted and conserved to create the three\u2011floor Julia Rausing Learning Centre, significantly expanding educational and engagement provision in the tower.<\/p>\n<p>The Waterloo Block is where the famous Crown Jewels are housed and is home to the Fusilier Museum, but it\u2019s also used as admin offices by the Tower and HRP. The basement is also where the archives are currently housed, and which will be moved to their new home as part of the project.<\/p>\n<p>The redevelopment forms part of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrp.org.uk\/tower-of-london\/tomorrows-tower\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tomorrow\u2019s Tower<\/a>, Historic Royal Palaces\u2019 long-term vision to improve education, visitor facilities, sustainability, accessibility and conservation across the historic site.<\/p>\n<p>Brigadier Andrew Jackson, Governor of the Tower of London, said: \u201cBy opening up new spaces for learning, community and discovery, we are ensuring the Tower\u2019s stories continue to resonate, reaching more classrooms, more communities and the millions of people from around the world who visit each year, while carefully protecting what makes this extraordinary place so special.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Work is being supported by a combination of philanthropic donations, including funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, The Julia Rausing Trust, the Garfield Weston Foundation, the Clore Duffield Foundation, and Charles and Nicky Manby.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tower of London\u2019s architectural archives will be opened to the public for the first time as part&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-693690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}