Coventry's Transport Museum could move to old IKEA building
The Museum's been at Millenium Place since 1980.
Coventry Transport Museum could get a new venue in the city’s old IKEA building which is being turned into a cultural hub.
The popular attraction, home to the world’s largest publicly owned collection of British vehicles, has been at Millenium Place since 1980.
It could now get a new location in floors one and two of the former furniture store which was bought by the city council in 2021.
A “reimagined cultural destination venue” for the museum is being considered as a possible use for the floors, the council said in a news release on Monday (17 July).
Relocating the museum into the building is an option that will be explored in upcoming consultation sessions.
The museum’s off-site car collection is already moving to the ground floor of the building, which is now known as the ‘City Centre Cultural Gateway.’
Other floors of the building will be used as a national collections centre for important artwork and by Coventry University as a gallery, library, research space and cafe.
This month will see consultations involving CV Life, which runs the transport museum, and Coventry City Council which owns the old IKEA building.
The public will be asked their views on the move and on wider plans for how floors one and two of the building can be used for cultural activity.
CV Life Chief Exec Paul Breed said an “expanded transport museum offer” in the building had “huge potential.”
He said: “There is so much opportunity within the CCCG at this moment, with lots of ideas floating around as to how the cultural offer of the city can be grown.
“The idea of incorporating a consolidated and expanded transport museum offer into the developments has huge potential, especially if it brings with it new elements that focus on enhancing the interactive experience of the visitor.”
Cllr David Welsh, who leads on culture at Coventry council, stressed no decision has been made yet.