• Bay Landmark On Target For Its Grand Unveiling
    23/06/2008

    Torre Abbey is emerging from its years as a restoration site, shrugging off its chrysalis of scaffolding.The major construction work is nearing completion and staff are now busy giving the abbey a top-to-toe makeover inside.

    Head of museum services Michael Rhodes said they are still on target for a preview opening on July 5.

    The big job now is cleaning and decorating, walls, ceilings and floors, and creating art display areas with new hanging systems, and the mammoth moving job needed to get the abbey's massive collection back on view, including its 600 paintings.

    The majority of the building will be open in July, said Mr Rhodes.

    "It will be a relatively low key preview before our official opening in September, but we hope people will find something different and interesting to see. Even people who think they know the abbey well will find it is very different."

    Dr Rhodes explained money has been set aside from the £6m first phase of the project for the finishing touches.

    "Obviously there has been a lot of dust from the building work, and some rooms have been used for storage and so are looking pretty shabby.

    One difference is that visitors will be entering the abbey not through the traditional entrance facing the seafront, but through a door under the tower facing Kings Drive.

    They will enter through a glass door with a fascinating pattern etched into it. It represents the sound of the abbey's five bells which was the only sound that would have been heard from that point onwards inside the abbey when it was run by a silent order.

    For the first time visitors will be able to see the medieval undercrofts and enjoy the new reception building built into the old cloisters, where the position of some of the 40 graves found have been marked.

    They have now finished unpacking the small objects which had been kept in storage during the work, and will be moving the paintings back to the galleries and unpacking the collection of Thrupp sculptures.

     Dr Rhodes said: "We are hoping there will be more interest in it, after all it is the biggest heritage restoration project in the area. There may be mixed views about what has been done, it will be interesting to see. But now it is a building for the 21st century. I hope people will love it."

    It is planned to re-apply for a wedding licence so ceremonies can be held in the ballroom and a blessing in the chapel.

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