Former Portsmouth Royal Marines Museum To Become Five-Star Hotel The 150-year-old building sold for an undisclosed sum and is to be converted into a luxury hotel.

 4th December 2020 at 11:05am

A building that once housed the Royal Marines Museum in Portsmouth is set to be converted into a luxury five-star hotel.

The 150-year-old building in Eastney has been sold for an undisclosed sum to Grand Hotel Excelsior International, which has plans to convert the listed building into a hotel.

The Royal Marines Museum, which is part of the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN), was housed in the former officers’ mess on the Eastney Barracks site from the early 1970s until 2017 when the museum deemed the building was no longer suitable.

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In its place, plans were unveiled to convert the Action Stations building in the historic dockyard into an attraction designed to commemorate the corps’ history for modern audiences.

Proceeds from the sale of the building have been split between the National Museum of the Royal Navy and the Royal Navy itself.

The Navy agreed to assist the museum in moving and storing the Royal Marines' collection of paintings, personal effects, uniforms, and kit – about two million items in total –to a state-of-the-art collections centre in Storehouse 12 in the historic dockyard.

An artist's impression of how the future Royal Marines attraction could look (Picture: Royal Navy).

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The storehouse is set to open to the public in 2021.

The project alone has cost £2m, and the future of the Royal Marines Museum remains uncertain after a National Lottery bid was turned down, although the sale of the building has provided hope for its overall longevity.

Dominic Tweddle, the National Museum’s director general, said: "The impact of the pandemic left the future of the National Museum at risk, and meant we did have to take some time away from the project as we fought to secure our future.

"The dedicated team working on the project have been working hard over the last couple of months to move the plans along. 

"The sale of Eastney represents a huge milestone in that process as it frees up some capital to support the project."

Cover image: The entrance to the former museum building in Portsmouth (Picture: Royal Navy).