Marines museum to close for three years as part of move to Portsmouth dockyard

If you’ve not sampled the long, proud history of the Royal Marines there are just weeks left before its museum closes for three years.

The contents of the historic site in Eastney are being moved lock, stock and barrel as part of a £14m revamp of the galleries of the National Museum of the Royal Navy.

The Royal Marines Museum will re-materialise as a much more modern, interactive experience in 2020 inside the boathouse which currently houses the Action Stations attraction.

By moving the Royal Marines’ story on to the same site as the National Museum of the RN, Mary Rose, and Victory, bosses reckon visitor numbers could increase twentyfold.

And it will also allow them to display up to 30 per cent more objects and artefacts than the existing location.

The move means closing the galleries at Eastney from April 1, although the museum will continue to host corporate events, weddings and functions until November 2018, and act as the home of various organisations such as the Friends of the RM Museum, the RM Historical Society, the RM Association Concert Band, and the Fort Cumberland Guard.

As for the fate of the iconic yomper statue which dominates the seafront at the museum entrance, a consultation closes at the end of February.

The move is part of a wider revamp of the displays and galleries across the National Museum; more than two million artefacts, currently kept in 30 separate stores at 14 buildings across nine sites, will be relocated and made accessible to visitors in a bold move to revolutionise the way the story of the Royal Navy is told.