WIREDGOV

On 12th October English Heritage unveiled its design for the new proposed visitor centre for Stonehenge

The designs were revealed as a planning application for the visitor centre was made to Wiltshire Council. As announced by the Government last May, the new centre will be located at Airman’s Corner, 1.5 miles west from the monument and will not be visible from it.

The new visitor centre is designed by leading architectural firm Denton Corker Marshall to be sensitive to its surroundings and to the significance of the monument.

The exhibitions, café, shop and toilets will be housed in a pair of single-storey areas – one glass, the other timber-enclosed - sitting beneath a gently undulating roof. The centre will be linked to the Stones by a low-key transit system. It will be fully accessible to disabled visitors.

English Heritage’s Stonehenge project director Loraine Knowles said: “The new centre is designed to blend into the World Heritage landscape which visitors will pass through on their way to the Stones.

“It will provide enhanced opportunities for education and interpretation, and has first class facilities in keeping with Stonehenge’s status as a world-renowned tourist attraction.”

Stephen Quinlan, director of architects’ Denton Corker Marshall, said: “Designing a visitor centre at a site of such importance is both a major challenge and a serious responsibility. Our proposal, above all, seeks not to compromise the solidity and timelessness of the Stones, but to satisfy the brief with a design which is universally accessible, environmentally sensitive, and at the same time appears almost transitory in nature.

“If once back at home, a visitor can remember their visit to the stones but can’t remember the visitor centre they passed through on the way, we will be happy.”

Wiltshire Council will now undertake further public consultation as part of the formal planning process. Further details of the application are available from Wiltshire Council.

Key elements of the scheme include:

• a new environmentally sensitive visitor centre at Airman’s Corner with enhanced exhibition and education facilities;

• a low-key visitor transit system that will transport visitors from the visitor centre to a drop-off point close to the Stones. A four-trailer visitor transit system similar to that currently running at the Eden Project in Cornwall;

• removal of the current car park and facilities at the Stones. The area will return to grassland, leaving only a minimal operations/security base and emergency toilets;

• closure of the A344. Wiltshire Council will apply to restrict motorised vehicles on the A344 from the Stones to Airman’s Corner (with exemptions )and also on byways within the WHS; and

• upgrade of the Airman’s Corner road junction to a roundabout. Highways Agency will also make improvements at Longbarrow Crossroads to mitigate the effects of the A344 closure.

More images and details of our proposals are on view at www.stonehengevisitorcentre.org.