National Waterfront Museum

The National Waterfront Museum at Swansea tells the story of industry and innovation in Wales, now and over the last 300 years. Our vast industrial and maritime heritage is ready to explore via cutting-edge, interactive technology married with traditional displays. It means that a unique, captivating and involved visitor experience lies in wait at Wales’s newest national museum. The Industrial Revolution in Wales had a tremendous effect on people and communities, as well as the rest of the World, and visitors can soak up the history with a breathtaking mix of old and new in the city’s rapidly developing maritime quarter. The National Waterfront Museum is housed in spectacular fashion, in an original and listed waterfront warehouse linked to a new, ultra-modern slate and glass building. Interactives Industrial history and its impact on the lives of people in Wales are brought to life through images, films, maps, words, spoken testimony and the latest sensory technology that respond to hand gestures. Find out how industry affected the way we used to live - be it individuals, groups or organisations - and have your eyes opened to the scale of Welsh maritime heritage and history in the Warehouse gallery. Traditional exhibitions are used in new ways, while tabletops with sensors mean visitors can interact with the displays. The museum also boasts displays of iconic objects from our industrial past, housed in the new building, complemented by interactive stations that explore the social and cultural history of industrial Wales. You can also learn about current technology, as well as what lies in store in the future, in the film-based Frontiers Gallery. The National Waterfront Museum puts you in charge of the experience, allowing you to delve as deeply into the exhibitions, displays and information as you want. Visit us and lose yourself in the rich and enthralling history of Welsh industry and innovation, where the technology of today puts the past at your fingertips. The Building The building The National Waterfront Museum is housed in a magnificent building that elegantly combines old and new architecture. A Grade II listed former dockside warehouse (formerly the Swansea Industrial & Maritime Museum) built in 1902, contrasts with a spectacular new glass and slate structure designed exactly a century later, designed by Stirling Prize-winning architects Wilkinson Eyre. Opened in 2005, it represents one of Amgueddfa Cymru — National Museum Wales's biggest, most ambitious projects, costing over £35m. It was developed in partnership with the City & County of Swansea, and was made possible by an £11 million Heritage Lottery Fund grant. Recognised by the UK Regeneration Awards as the best design-led regeneration project, the National Waterfront Museum has also received awards from the Royal Institute for British Architects and the Civic Trust.

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