Graham starts main works on National Railway Museum’s Central Hall

Graham has signed the main construction contract for the National Railway Museum’s Central Hall project, allowing work to begin on a new entrance building at the museum’s York site.

The £17m scheme will create a new visitor gateway between the museum’s Great Hall and Station Hall, improving movement across a site historically divided by Leeman Road. The building will provide gallery space, a café, shop, visitor facilities, and stronger connections between the museum’s main halls.

Central Hall has been designed by Feilden Fowles Architects and will include Railway Futures: The Porterbrook Gallery, a space dedicated to emerging rail technologies and the future of the industry. Its recycled copper-clad exterior and timber-ribbed glazed roof draw on historic railway roundhouses while supporting a lower-carbon design approach.

The contract follows confirmation of an additional £3m government funding package, enabling the museum to move into the construction phase. Graham previously delivered pre-construction services on the project and will now lead the main works programme, which is expected to run for around two years and complete in 2028.

Central Hall forms part of the National Railway Museum’s wider transformation and the York Central regeneration area. Although the contract value is modest compared with major infrastructure schemes, the project sits within a complicated urban and heritage setting where public access, live operations, retained assets, construction logistics, and regeneration interfaces must be coordinated carefully.

Cultural and heritage projects often require a different delivery rhythm from standard new-build work. Existing structures, visitor routes, public safety, conservation requirements, and stakeholder expectations can all constrain programme. Where a project is also tied into wider regeneration, temporary access, highways, service diversions, public realm, and neighbour management become central to the build strategy.

Graham’s appointment adds to the contractor’s public-infrastructure workload. The company has also been appointed for the Clifton Hampden bypass section of Oxfordshire’s Didcot infrastructure programme, a transport-led scheme that, like Central Hall, depends on careful interface management and long-term public value rather than simple asset delivery.

For York, the museum project will support the wider redevelopment of former railway land and strengthen the public-facing role of the National Railway Museum within the city. The building will improve legibility, create a clearer arrival sequence, and connect exhibition space more effectively across the estate.

The scheme also reflects changing expectations for civic and cultural buildings. Clients are seeking improved accessibility, lower operational carbon, more flexible internal space, and stronger links to surrounding public realm, while still working within constrained capital budgets. The use of recycled copper and timber structure gives the project a clearer sustainability profile, but long-term performance will depend on detailing, maintenance, services strategy, and operational energy use.

Museum construction carries additional complexity at handover. Exhibition spaces, back-of-house areas, retail, catering, education facilities, and visitor circulation all need to be operationally coherent from opening day. Commissioning, fit-out, signage, interpretation, and public safety planning must therefore align with the main construction programme rather than sit as late additions.

Graham’s main works role now moves Central Hall from design and funding into delivery. The completed building will act as a new threshold for the museum and a visible part of York Central’s wider regeneration, joining heritage, transport, civic construction, and public realm in one tightly constrained site.