Plymouth to get £5m new naval museum

Work will begin this year on a £5m museum to tell the story of the Royal Navy in Plymouth.

It’s the cornerstone of a 12-year plan by museum bosses which will also see a multi-million pound revamp of the Fleet Air Arm’s heritage.

The team who have more than doubled tourist numbers to Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard inside a decade say the time has come to give Devonport a full-time visitor attraction, centred around former nuclear submarine HMS Courageous.

And the long-term plan revealed by the National Museum of the Royal Navy will transform the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton with brand-new facilities.

The National Museum was formed a decade ago to bring the Service’s four principal museums - Royal Navy, Submarine, Royal Marines and Fleet Air Arm - under central leadership to better tell the story of the individual branches and the whole Senior Service, and to bring in millions of pounds investment.

Aided by a mix of fund-raising and money from National Lottery investment, around £125m has been injected into the RN’s heritage over the past decade, helping to more than double visitor numbers to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, restore WW2-era submarine HMS Alliance in Gosport, open Jutland veteran cruiser HMS Caroline as a tourist attraction in Belfast, and Gallipoli veteran monitor HMS M33 in Portsmouth.