ONE of Monklands’ top tourist attractions is set to close its doors for nearly two years as it gets a £10m facelift. The main exhibition hall at Coatbridge’s Summerlee Exhibition Centre will close its doors on Friday, although the rest of the park will stay open until September. That’s when the multi-million pound makeover begins in earnest, with the doors closed to visitors until April 2008. North Lanarkshire Council’s head of Facility Support Services, Graham Patrick, is leading the team tackling the redevelopment. He said: “While Summerlee's exhibition hall is closed, and during the closure of the park itself, alternative museum and heritage services will be available from other council venues such as Motherwell Heritage Centre, Cumbernauld Museum, Airdrie Discovery Room at Airdrie Library, community centres and libraries. “And in conjunction with our employees and the trade unions, we are looking at how we can redeploy the staff from Summerlee to assist in these other areas during the closure period. “In the meantime, we will continue to progress this terrific project that will make a huge difference to the delivery of our museums and heritage service in North Lanarkshire.” The work will get underway in September but the main exhibition hall needs to close this week to let staff transfer the exhibits and collections to a storage facility. This means that the hall, with its working machinery and displays as well as the renowned Compton Cinema Organ, will be closed to the public from Friday. However, the rest of the park will remain open until the complete closure in the autumn. This includes the electric tramway, the children’s play area, miners’ row, the mine tour and the Ironworks Gallery, which will be showing an exhibition on the story of Summerlee as a museum over the summer period. Around half of the £10m makeover cash is coming from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The council are forking out £4.6m, the Scottish Museums Council handed over £60,000 and £331,000 is coming from various partnerships. The makeover centres on the refurbishment of the main exhibition hall at the park with the installation of a new exhibition and displays, improving access to the museums collection and ensuring the facility meets the needs of visitors. AC060806 | 
Article
