Trying to save FIREPOWER

This week’s issue of the local newspaper confirmed rumours that I had heard about the closure – at the end of 2016 – of the Royal Artillery’s Museum FIREPOWER, which is located in buildings within the old Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. This news received further confirmation in an open letter written by Major General Michael Steele (the Chairman of the Friends of Firepower) in the Spring issue of the Firepower Newsletter, which I received in today’s post.

A full statement by the Chairman of the Royal Artillery Museum Board has now appeared on the Museum’s website. It explains the circumstances surrounding the decision to close the Museum.

As Chairman of the Royal Artillery Museum Limited (RAML) Board, I thought the time was now right to update you on some notable changes planned for our Museum. A strategic review of operations at Firepower has been underway for the last 15 months; its purpose has been to determine the best way to sustain a museum operation with maximum public access to the Royal Regiment of Artillery’s Collection whilst reducing the demand on our various supporting organisations whose ability to provide financial assistance is diminishing.

The sad, inescapable fact is that despite Firepower’s restructuring, streamlining and improvement – for which great credit is due to all involved – the Museum will be unable to live within the available income and it is also clear that the location is very unlikely to be able to deliver the number of visitors in the timescale needed for financial sustainability. Running costs cannot be reduced significantly below those achieved in the last 2½ years. Therefore, it has been essential to develop a new basis for sustaining the Regiment’s Collection.

The strategic review’s principal conclusion was that the long term future of the Regiment’s Collection would best be served by retaining a small heritage presence at Woolwich but moving the bulk of the operation elsewhere in partnership with others. Over the last 7 months, these conclusions have been examined more closely for feasibility and the Board will review findings in July/August 2014. This has been commercially very sensitive.

However there has been a recent development about which I can now update you. An early step of the review was to decide about the Royal Arsenal site where our assets lie and where we wish to remain in part. On 20 May 2014 we signed and exchanged a conditional agreement with the Royal Borough of Greenwich to reassign the leases of the museum’s buildings to them. This deal would see Firepower vacate its buildings by 31 December 2016 and, in the same timeframe, the creation of a permanent Royal Artillery exhibition in a combined heritage centre adjacent to our current site at Woolwich; this will set the Regiment’s history in the context of the Royal Arsenal and helps the Royal Arsenal site develop into the heritage quarter that has always been the Royal Borough of Greenwich’s ambition. Whilst further dialogue is needed with donors and supporters from the grant making phase in the 1990s, the deal’s conditions are assessed to be achievable.

In the meantime, we have been developing a better understanding of possible future sites for the long term museum operation and have 3 main options under active consideration. These will be presented to the RAML Board later this year and a preferred site will be chosen and developed to the next level of detail. Ideally we would move directly there from Woolwich, however it is likely that we will have to move some of the Collection via an appropriate storage facility. It is our firm intention to remain as active during the Transition Phase as we can be; amongst other things, we are working on plans for a virtual museum, access throughout transition to key parts of the collection and archive and specific events and activities to keep our heritage in the public consciousness.

Overall, this deal represents a significant opportunity to create a sustainable public access museum – the core purpose of our charity – whilst retaining a close and enduring bond with the Regiment’s birthplace at the Royal Arsenal. You can be reassured that our goal continues to be to provide the greatest possible public access to the history and heritage of artillery and the story of the courage and service of the men and women of the Royal Regiment of Artillery. Our short term focus must be on maintaining an effective museum operation at Woolwich until late 2016 and ensuring that whatever we develop for the future appropriately balances the need for financial viability with the core goal of public access to our heritage. Future plans will be appropriately updated as they develop.

The Royal Artillery was formed in Woolwich in 1716, and until just a few years ago there had been a continuous link between the Regiment and the town. Woolwich was the home of the Regiment, and there are very few ‘Gunners’ who have not spent part of their time in the Regiment in Woolwich.

When the Royal Artillery moved out, other units – including the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery – moved in. The only link between the Regiment and its ‘home’ was the Museum … and now that is slated for closure. Not everyone is taking this decision lying down, and an online e-petition has been set up in the hope that the decision can be rescinded. I have signed … and I am encouraging any of my regular UK-based blog readers to do the same. (Unfortunately the e-petition can only be signed by UK residents.) If you are interested in signing the e-petition, please click on this link.

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A personal note: I feel very strongly about the closure of the Royal Artillery’s Museum for several reasons.

• Firstly, I live within a mile or so of the Museum, and visit it as often as I can.
• Secondly my father and my maternal grandfather (as well as at least one of my aunts!) were ‘Gunners’.
• Thirdly – and in some ways most importantly – my wife’s family has been associated with the Regiment since one of her forebears – John Bayne – joined as a Fifer in Woolwich in 1767 at the age of 12. He later rose to become Fife Major to the Company of Gentleman Cadets, one of the most senior NCOs in the Regiment. Her family have lived in Woolwich ever since, and the closure of the Museum would sever a family link that is almost 250 years old.