It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 9:36 am


Military Medicine Museum

if it's about Cardiff.. Sport, Entertainment, Transportation, Business, Development Projects, Leisure, Eating, Drinking, Nightlife, Shopping, Train Spotting! etc.. then we want it here!
  • Author
  • Message
Offline

Bishop84

  • Posts: 96
  • Joined: Wed Sep 17, 2014 10:14 pm

Re: Military Medicine Museum

PostSun May 05, 2019 6:09 pm

Ash wrote:The problem is that although Brittania Park is laid out as a public park, it's privately owned, a bit like that grassy area that existed for a few years where the Admiral building is now. You can't blame the owners for wanting to extract value from it.


I thought that now the Dolfin Quay development had been cancelled that Cardiff Council was buying that area from its owners in order to retain the area as open space.
Offline

Ash

  • Posts: 1040
  • Joined: Wed Jul 30, 2014 12:28 pm

Re: Military Medicine Museum

PostSun May 05, 2019 10:32 pm

You may well be right. I hadn't heard that.
Offline

Cwlcymro

  • Posts: 100
  • Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2014 10:17 am

Re: Military Medicine Museum

PostMon May 06, 2019 1:07 pm

Bishop84 wrote:I thought that now the Dolfin Quay development had been cancelled that Cardiff Council was buying that area from its owners in order to retain the area as open space.


Not quite, they are buying it to keep it as a 'lesiure area' not neccessarily 'open space'. Here's the quote:

The council says it wants to buy the land to protect the bay edge for leisure use and to enhance Cardiff Bay.

Subject to planning permission, the site "provides the potential to create a new Bayside restaurant and leisure quarter which will enhance the amenity of Cardiff Bay," a council report says.
Offline

DavidH71

  • Posts: 82
  • Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2019 10:51 pm

Re: Military Medicine Museum

PostMon May 06, 2019 10:13 pm

We certainly need something to bring in the visitors, especially since the closure of the Dr Who exhibition. Has there been any further news about the future of that building and/or the land it sits on? And some more places to eat would be useful; at weekends the restaurants at Mermaid Quay are often jam-packed (even the poor ones...)
Offline

lucky

  • Posts: 167
  • Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2014 1:21 am

Re: Military Medicine Museum

PostFri Aug 16, 2019 2:59 pm

There is now a pre-development consultation on this from the developers at mmmuseum.wixsite.com/public-consultation with some frankly optimistic illustrations. The design is "award nominated" - it looks like a series of brown sheds abutted by a glass box (the shed bit doesn't feature in most of the illustrations).

For those earlier wondering "why Cardiff?", there's a line on the actual museum website that gives the game away. “The site in Cardiff was chosen after earlier approaches to other cities around the United Kingdom came to nought.” In other words, nobody else wants it. The museum is currently housed by the MoD in Aldershot, and even they don't want it - it's costing them money.

Given that the relatively popular Doctor Who Exhibition on a site next door had to close once its Council subsidy ended, I can't see how this enterprise will stay open without substantial ongoing subsidy from the city or the Welsh Government. It's eating up public open land for an unprepossessing building that will likely be closed within 3-5 years, when there is already a massive white (well, blue) elephant next door in the closed Doctor Who Exhibition site.
Offline

RandomComment

  • Posts: 881
  • Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:50 pm

Re: Military Medicine Museum

PostFri Aug 16, 2019 6:02 pm

lucky wrote:Given that the relatively popular Doctor Who Exhibition on a site next door had to close once its Council subsidy ended, I can't see how this enterprise will stay open without substantial ongoing subsidy from the city or the Welsh Government. It's eating up public open land for an unprepossessing building that will likely be closed within 3-5 years, when there is already a massive white (well, blue) elephant next door in the closed Doctor Who Exhibition site.


I'm not sure this is a fair comparison.

The Military Medicine Museum is a free museum - it is supported by a charitable foundation, grants, research, donations, ancilliary income from shops, cafe, training courses, events spaces, etc. Doctor Who was a paid for attraction (and not that cheap and despite being a moderate Dr Who fan, in my view, not that good).

You're right that the MMM may struggle to make its new much larger fancier home work. But its quite a different proposition to the Dr Who Experience - in that its not a moneymaking exercise. Its already subsidised, will probably continue to be subsidised in some form. I don't think they are asking the city to subsidise it though?
Offline

RandomComment

  • Posts: 881
  • Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:50 pm

Re: Military Medicine Museum

PostFri Aug 16, 2019 6:12 pm

Although I think a more fair criticism is that its less of a museum and more of an all purpose sort of function space.

It looks like of the four floors, only the top one (third floor) is actually galleries. The second floor is for research (inc. a library). The first seems to be meeting rooms and function rooms. And the ground floor is mostly cafe, with some "public exhibition space" - I guess a few exhibits to tempt people in.

It seems a growing thing when it comes to modern museums, libraries, etc. There is a library in Clapham which seems more cafe, creche, and 'co-working' space than a library - with the books relegated to a single set of shelves around the outside of the large room. Libraries with few books and museums with few exhibits. Is that because we've lost our attention spans and just want to drink coffee, eat cake, and tap away on our laptops and phones instead? :-|
Offline

DavidH71

  • Posts: 82
  • Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2019 10:51 pm

Re: Military Medicine Museum

PostFri Aug 16, 2019 10:35 pm

I'm glad to see this has come back onto the radar - it's quirky enough that it might work! The industrial appearance of the building works well in this location, but I do wonder about the wisdom of putting the galleries on the top floor. It looks like a long schlep up all those ramps to the 3rd floor - either people won't bother, or that single lift will be very busy... Surely it would be better to put the cafe up there and take advantage of the view.

Most libraries regard books as something of a sideline now. I occasionally pop into the Grangetown library (or should I say Hub) and only a few people head for the bookshelves. Most customers are there to use the computers, attend various courses in the meeting rooms, or collect those flimsy green recycling bags.... But at least the place is busy.
Offline

lucky

  • Posts: 167
  • Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2014 1:21 am

Re: Military Medicine Museum

PostSat Aug 17, 2019 10:03 pm

Its already subsidised, will probably continue to be subsidised in some form. I don't think they are asking the city to subsidise it though?


No - the point is, the MoD want it gone because they have decreed that all such museums etc must become self-sufficient. It comes with a one-off grant of £2million to establish it, which is peanuts these days. So given that it is substantially less commercial in its appeal than something that also failed as soon as its subsidy stopped (the point of the comparison with Who, I appreciate they're very different beasts otherwise), I'm not holding out much hope for its long term future unless Cardiff Council put their hand in their pocket yet again.
Offline

Frank

  • Posts: 349
  • Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2015 4:54 pm

Re: Military Medicine Museum

PostSun Aug 18, 2019 2:13 pm

I'm not a huge fan of the open plan central library. To be fair it is generally quiet enough in there anyway. They used to have some problems with 'yoof' occasionally but not so much now.

It's more of a problem for the services in the Hub which don't have the sort of privacy they would have once expected.
PreviousNext

Return to Cardiff Wales Map forum

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot], Philnpt and 43 guests