What you need to know
The Visitor Welcome Centre, our new public facing entrance, will be opening on Friday 9 September, the result of a lot of planning and hard work from teams across the Museum.
We’ve put together a staff guide about the Visitor Welcome Centre (below). Please note that there are important changes regarding entry and exit to the Museum.
If you have any further questions, please get in touch with Nick Sellers, Head of Museum Operations (ext. 388; [email protected]).
- How do I access the Museum?
- Using Uattend
- What is the guide building?
- Where do I park?
- Where are the Museum Welcome Administrators?
- How do visitors access the Museum?
- Where should I meet business visitors?
- How do contractors get onto site?
- How do vehicles get onto site?
- Where should deliveries go?
- Where can I collect and send post?
- Can I still book Halls 1 and 2?
- What is happening to Brooke Entrance?
How do I access the Museum?
Access will be via the green door into the compound next to Rolfe Street, followed by a path along to the turning circle. There is a pedestrian gate to the left hand side of the new gates halfway down the hill from the turning circle towards the mine. These will operate with your staff card and allow you to bypass the Visitor Welcome Centre, as colleagues should not be using the Visitor Welcome Centre to enter or exit the Museum.
Please note, the current admission route through Rolfe Street will cease from Monday 12 September to prepare for renovation works to convert the space into a dedicated learning centre. Rolfe Street’s main entrance will move to card access only, and specifically only for scheduled use of Halls 1 and 2 only (see below for further information).
Using Uattend
All colleagues are required to scan their ID card at the Uattend point upon entry and exit of the Museum. There are Uattend points by both the green gate and the exit point by the canal towpath for those eligible to use this. Please note that the discipline of scanning and in out must occur even if you’re leaving the Museum to go off site for meetings or lunch etc. Duty Managers will have access to Uattend to determine who is on site in the event of an emergency and before or after core hours.
What is the guide building?
This is at the far end of the compound and will be the new rest area for all those working within the Visitor Welcome Centre, as well as any other staff that choose to do so. It has toilet and welfare facilities available to everyone.
Where do I park?
Staff will continue to park in Rolfe Street, which will have access barriers in use as usual. The new car park, located behind the Visitor Welcome Centre, will become the Museum’s primary car park for visitors, with Rolfe Street car park becoming an over-flow option.
Where are the Museum Welcome Administrators?
Our welcome administrators (the Museum’s ‘reception’) will temporarily relocate to a renovated office in the guide building, before eventually being homed within the new learning centre in 2023.
Visitors will be welcomed and assisted purely by the admissions team. The Museum Welcome Administrators will continue to support from the guide building with telephone enquiries and switchboard assistance, together with more enhanced administrative support to the Museum.
How do visitors access the Museum?
Visitors arriving by car will navigate down a dedicated pathway connecting the new car park with the Visitor Welcome Centre.
A new fenced walkway will be opened daily by the admissions team to connect the Rolfe Street overflow parking area with the turning circle. This will also allow a pedestrian access route for visitors arriving by foot or bus on Tipton Road.
The turning circle itself, together with Bradburn and Wedge, will now become what is referred to as ‘pre-admission’, meaning a ticket is not required to access this area.
After hours, the overflow walkway, together with new gates near the tram shed, will be closed and locked to secure the Museum site.
Where should I meet business visitors?
Business visitors should be directed to our new car park and colleagues should be assigned to take responsibility for receiving such visitors at an agreed time, with telephone contact details exchanged as required. Importantly, such colleagues should ensure that all business visitors (i.e. not entering with a ticket) are signed in via the admissions team.
Please bear in mind that there will no longer be a dedicated reception facility in the Visitor Welcome Centre, and our admissions team will not be able to give focus to contacting colleagues around the Museum when business visitors arrive. They will however, of course, always assist any individual who enters the Visitor Welcome Centre and looks lost!
How do contractors get onto site?
Where you are arranging contractors to visit the Museum, these should be directed to park alongside staff in the Rolfe Street car park, and to contact colleagues directly by telephone upon arrival, or the Museum Welcome Administrators via the compound intercom.
All contractors should sign in at the office of the Museum Welcome Administrators in the guide building upon arrival and departure, and must be met and escorted onto site by a relevant Museum colleague. Under no circumstances will the Museum Welcome Administrators allow contractors out into the Museum site unaccompanied.
How do vehicles get onto site?
You may have noticed new black gates that have been constructed halfway down the hill from the turning circle towards the mine.
These gates form part of the pre-admission area, to ensure that all visitors only make their way into the Museum via the Visitor Welcome Centre.
These gates operate by remote and – in some instances – automatically to allow our period vehicles to move through the site. Before 10am, these gates will be held open for the Museum’s usual deliveries and maintenance vehicle movements.
Where should deliveries go?
Deliveries should continue to be directed via our Rolfe Street/Tipton Road entrance. Clear signage will be installed along Tipton Road to give such directions.
The intercom on the brown compound gates can be used to reach the Visitor Welcome Administrators who will support with deliveries.
Small items will be stored in a black shed outside the guide hut for collection by staff, whilst larger deliveries after 10am (such as retail pallets) will be stored in a segregated area inside the glass-fronted entrance to Rolfe Street.
Staff will be able to access the entrance to Rolfe Street to collect pallets using staff cards.
Separate briefings to relevant staff members will be issued in due course, as the Museum works to tighten up delivery protocols which includes the acceptance of scheduled deliveries only.
Where can I collect and send post?
These facilities will be co-ordinated by the Visitor Welcome Administrators in the guide building, where post will be collected and the franking machine will be relocated.
Can I still book Halls 1 and 2?
The Museum will retain ongoing use of Halls 1 and 2, the adjacent toilets and the basement levels of Rolfe Street throughout the learning centre renovation works.
Given the anticipated loss of services such as heating, power and electricity across the Rolfe Street complex on occasion throughout the works (and quite a lot of noise), the schedule of use for Halls 1 and 2 will be carefully managed.
Access to Halls 1 and 2 will be via either the main entrance to Rolfe Street or the barn doors out into the turning circle. Access may be restricted to one of these two routes for periods of time. Hoarding will be in place to clearly segregate publically accessible areas, and the construction area for the renovations.
Access to the basement is available either via the main Rolfe Street entrance or the rear barn doors down the hill.
What is happening to Brooke Entrance?
This building has been in use by contractors building the Visitor Welcome Centre, and will return to the Museum’s use from September. From that point, it will once again be used to facilitate learning as a dedicated workshop area.
