About the Client
Vestry House Museum is the local history museum for Waltham Forest London. It features themed displays that capture the unique heritage of the local area including the famous Bremer Car, a Victorian parlour and displays on local manufacturers including Ensign, Britains and Wells-Brimtoy.
Situated within Walthamstow Village, the building was constructed in 1730 to house the parish workhouse. After several changes of use, in 1931 the building opened to the public as a local history museum. The Museum holds an extensive collection of photographs, artworks and objects that tell the story of Waltham Forest.
The Requirement
Working in consultation with local residents, and beginning in 2023, the museum undertook a revitalisation project to further transform the museum into a welcoming heritage destination. Works included: The refurbishment of the building and museum, relocation of the public museum to the ground-floor, demolition/rebuild of parts of the building, relocation of the cafe, improvement of disabled access to the museum and the development new entrances to aid access.
A large part of the project was the enhancement of the museum storage areas to ensure that its large and ever expanding collection was kept in ideal conditions and kept accessible to its team and external researchers. Amongst other solutions they required: Storage cabinets for the preservation of textiles, long span shelving to hold items in museum boxes, drawer units and static shelving to hold glass negative boxes, vertical storage and mesh panels for the safe storage of paintings and artworks.
To undertake this work Rackline were chosen based on its teams extensive knowledge, and history working to optimise museum storage and collections areas.
The Solution
Rackline’s projects team undertook a detailed audit of the museum storage space, and the inventory to be stored. Based on these findings they then built plans and outlined solutions to maximise the museum space and complement the items in its collection.
The Solutions Installed:
Museum Plan Chests: Specialist museum drawers designed for the safe storage of maps, artworks and papers. In total 4x A0 units were supplied providing 52 drawers of capacity.
6 Secure Lockable Cabinets: Fitted with rails for hanging clothing. Each bay is 1100 (w) x 600 (d) x 1875mm (h). These provide secure storage for hanging delicate clothes items. These cabinets are also fitted with ultra secure ASSA Locks.
Widespan Shelving: In total 29 widespan bays were supplied. These were designed to fit around existing storage and add capacity. Space was assigned for the storage of larger items, and space left underneath the units for this purpose.
Prospan Static Shelving: Used for the storage of older standard museum storage boxes. 10 Prospan bays were supplied and combined with the widespan shelving added considerable capacity.
Profile Static Shelving: 2 profile bays were supplied at 1100mm (w) for the storage of Glass Negative Boxes and Soil Boxes.
Toast Rack: These systems provide vertical storage space for artworks. In Total 8x 1200mm (w) units were installed, supplying almost 30 linear metres of adjustable storage for these items.
Single and Double Sides Mesh Frames: Strong mesh frames provide almost 25m2 of hanging space for artworks and other items.
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The Result – Massively Improved Museum Storage Space.
The team at Vestry House Museum now has vastly more capacity in the same space. The solutions installed by Rackline cleverly maximise the museum storage space and provide for better organisation of items. The selection of specialist museum storage solutions provide protection for the valuable museum collection and allow for fast deposit and retrieval.
Find Out More
If you are interested in what you’ve seen within this article and would like to discover more about our Museum Storage solutions, then get in touch: 01782 770144, alternatively drop us a message on the form below and one of our team will be in touch.