National Museum of the Royal Navy in 'precarious' situation after lockdown causes £6.1m shortfall

Bosses made the decision to temporarily close its sites in Portsmouth and Gosport on March 18 to ensure the safety and wellbeing of its staff and visitors, in line with government advice.

Many UK national museums receive 60 per to 80 per cent of their total funding from the government.

While the NMRN is one, only 19 per cent of its central funding is provided by the government with the remaining 81 per cent having to be self-generated.

As reported, the organisation lost a £9.1m fundraising bid for the Royal Marines Museum.

Professor Dominic Tweddle, the museum’s general director, said: ‘Many will have seen in the media the dire situation facing museums up and down the country but perhaps don’t realise that a museum such as ours, faces those same challenges.

SEE ALSO: National Museum of the Royal Navy closes all sites in Portsmouth and Gosport

‘We have reached out to departments across the Navy, Ministry of Defence (MOD) and Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and have had great messages of support; but nevertheless the situation still remains precarious.’

Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, which is operated by the National Museum of the Royal Navy, is thought to generate a positive impact of in excess of £110million to the economy and is a key part of Portsmouth’s tourist and hospitality economy with additional visitor expenditure contributing £81.5 million to the local economy.

Prof Tweddle added: ‘The museum has over two million items in its care across its sites. These tell the incredible international story of our Royal Navy and also the represent the remarkable role of Portsmouth and Gosport as geographical lynchpins in Britain’s Naval Story.

‘We know that the relationship between the Museum, Portsmouth and its people is special and that our work is integral in supporting the local economy.’

The museum was recently dealt a crushing blow after lottery chiefs threw out a £3.9m cash plea to build a new Royal Marines Museum in Portsmouth.

Since closure the NMRN has launched its #NavigatetheNavy campaign online, sharing content from the dockyard and its collections. Highlights include #WebcamWednesday when the Museum shares incredible views of Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, Portsmouth Harbour and HM Naval Base Portsmouth.

These provide a much-needed glimpse of the ‘outside world’ and have been viewed by people from as far away as France, Spain and Australia.

Mr Tweddle added: ‘We are incredibly fortunate to have a loyal and hardworking team of volunteers and staff who support us. Currently 69% of our team have been asked to take furlough leave, something that has been critical in helping us manage our financial position. I can only thank them for their support in doing this.

‘However, we do still have a team of essential workers on site and it is fantastic that we can bring details of the work that they are doing to audiences online you can follow the NMRN on @natmuseumrn or facebook.com/NatMuseumRN/.’