Dundee Museum of Transport
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  Location of the Dundee Museum of Transport | |
| Established | 2010 (Opened 2014) |
|---|---|
| Location | Market Mews, Dundee, Scotland (DD1 3LA) |
| Coordinates | 56°27′59″N 2°56′57″W / 56.4665°N 2.9493°W |
| Type | Transport museum |
| Website | www.DMofT.co.uk |
The Dundee Museum of Transport, located in Dundee, Scotland[1] is a self-sustaining Scottish Charitable Organisation. The museum offers an extensive and ever-growing collection of items and celebrate transport in Dundee and across Scotland throughout history.
History
In February 2010, representatives from several local groups met intending to establish Dundee Museum of Transport (DMofT).
A committee was elected to advance the plans as quickly as possible, and on 2 June 2010 Dundee Museum of Transport was granted charitable status. Shortly after being formed DMofT acquired the lease on a derelict building that previously was part of an abattoir. Over the next four years a group of volunteers with little outside help or financial assistance, renovated the building and made it habitable. On Saturday 26 April 2014, Dundee Museum of Transport opened to the public.[2]
The museum opened in 2014 in one main hall, and over the next two years Halls two, three and four were completed and opened. Although the original intention was for the Market Mews site to be temporary, with a move slated for just a couple of years later, delays in acquiring and funding a permanent site pushed this back. Because of this, the museum currently has a lease extension at Market Mews until 2024.
From inception, the original Trustees intended to acquire the Maryfield tram depot as the museum’s eventual home. With the aid of a grant from Dundee City Council’s Common Good fund, the Maryfield site was purchased in 2015. The museum is now looking for funding to refurbish it. The current designs for the site were drawn up in 2019 and continue to be developed.[3]
The former depot, built in 1901, has been out of use since 2005 and was owned by Scottish Water prior to being acquired by the museum.[4]
The Board of Trustees, as part of a Lottery-funded Resilient Heritage project, significantly strengthened and diversified the museum’s governing Board over the past three years, bringing in new expertise, further Trustees and additional staff members.
Features
The museum offers four halls full of artefacts from buses and trams used on local routes, motorbikes pushbikes and cars from throughout the centuries and models of different ships and trains. There is also a gift shop and a café.
On the 23rd October 2020, the museum opened its most recent temporary exhibition, The Future of Transport, which takes on a retro futuristic feel while discussing the impact of transport on climate change and how transport is changing to counteract this. The museum also held an online event to celebrate the opening of the exhibition where organisations from across Dundee came together to discuss these issues and answer questions from the public. This has led to a continued conversation to bring together the organisations involved to strive for their shared goals together, instead of individually.
Plans for the Future
Over the next five years, from 2020 to 2025, the museum plans to renovate and move into the old tram depot at Maryfield. This will allow space to display more objects and provide a valuable history of Dundee. A main focus of the museum is to educate. The museum have previously held events and engaged with local schools and Alzheimer Scotland. The new building will provide the resources to conduct more educational workshops and community work. At these new premises, the external ground and café will be open to the local community without admission to the museum. The development of the Maryfield premises will become part of the regeneration phase of the local area. The museum will also focus on sustainability and renewable energy. It is therefore planned that the new premises will have roof-mounted solar water heating panels to reduce energy demand, the museum is also planning for ground source heat pumps for the garden area. It will inform visitors about fossil-fuel-free transportation, which we have already started with, in The Future of Transport exhibition. There will also be a park and ride provided to other Dundee based visitor attractions to minimise the museums' carbon footprint.
The museum is one of the eight organisations, out of 264 proposals from 48 countries, that will exhibit at the UN COP26 in November 2021.[5] The COP (Conference of the Parties) is a crucial step in the journey to a low or net-zero carbon global future. The event aims to catalyse climate action across sectors and society. The exhibition will showcase electric transport, the future of transport themes, environmentalism in the transport sector, Dundee and its role as Scotland's Greenest City, carbon-neutral solutions in the museum space, as well as showcasing the current museum, and the Maryfield project. The climate talks at COP26 will be enormous; it will be the UK's first time hosting and will be the biggest international summit the UK has ever hosted. It will bring together over 30,000 delegates including heads of state climate experts and campaigners to agree coordinated action to tackle climate change.
Gallery
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Installation of the museum sign outside the temporary home of the Dundee Museum of Transport -
The Future of Transport exhibition at The Dundee Museum of Transport -
Motorbike display at the Dundee Museum of Transport -
The proposed new home: Maryfield Tram Depot -
Column from the first Tay Bridge on display -
Cafe and gift shop area
References
- ^ "Transport museum to open at Market Mews in April". The Courier (Dundee). 16 December 2013. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
- ^ "New Dundee Museum of Transport opens to the public". BBC News. 25 April 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
- ^ "Transport museum plans for former Dundee tram depot back on the table". Evening Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
- ^ "Dundee Museum of Transport secures home at tram depot". BBC News. 7 November 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
- ^ "Winners of climate action competition revealed". Museums Association. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
External links
