All aboard as museum Spence Building opens

A “TRANSFORMATIONAL” multi-million-pound extension to the Preston Park Museum opens today with three exhibitions focusing on the bicentenary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.

- By GARETH LIGHTFOOT Local democracy reporter

The new Spence Building includes an exhibition space as well as large open stores, a new cafe and shop alongside the museum’s existing Victorian street and old hall.

The exhibition space is being launched today with ‘Tracks Of Change,’ a trio of exhibitions which celebrate how the railways changed the world.

Gateway To The World showcases three iconic paintings about the impact of railways by Victorian artist William Powell Frith, on loan from the King from the Royal Collection and Manchester City Galleries, displayed as a group for the first time.