Monkwearmouth Station Museum, Sunderland

Overview

This Victorian station, built by railway entrepreneur George Hudson in the 1840s re-opened in summer 2007 following a £1m redevelopment programme.

Much repair work was required on the building including a new roof and stonework repairs. The Museum now offers a modernised, accessible environment for visitors, with new heating and lighting systems and a lift to reach new learning and community rooms on the upper floor.

Redman Design worked on the new interactive galleries, including a specially designed Children's Gallery, which provides a stimulating and exciting environment for young visitors and their carers where they can have fun and learn together.

Exhibition Design

By using a varied approach to interpretation across the galleries we created displays that are engaging and fun. Activities and interaction, along with scenic elements, large, bold images and the use of AV elements create environments that have varied pace and appeal to a broad audience.

The Children's Gallery was designed specifically to meet needs of children it is bright and colourful with a range of simple transport-related interactives. The Journeys Gallery accommodates the bulk of the objects and the use of a large case enables these to be displayed to best advantage.

The AV presentations make the most of the small budget to deliver relevant stories.

Graphics

The graphics were designed to evoke a sense of the station's history, with colour schemes and typestyles that reference travel graphics of the past.
Historic images from the museum's collection enhance the story panels and are also presented on a large scale throughout the galleries.

A graphic timeline entitled Journey through Time leads visitors from the central hall through to the Journeys gallery. On the opposite side of the station building, a large wall display, The Story of the Station fills the corridor through to the Children's gallery, featuring Smudge, an illustrated station cat. On the station platform, interpretative panels were set against the backdrop of the working train line. Specialist outdoor graphic processes were sourced to ensure the robustness of the panels exposed to the elements.