The two illustrations depict how the South Wing of Walton Museum was redeveloped from 2008 to 2012.
Overall, the museum underwent significant transformation, including the introduction of two upper floors, the expansion and rearrangement of the museum with several new facilities, and the installation of a lift to improve accessibility.
Looking at the ground floor in 2008, visitors would enter the museum through an entrance, which led directly to a reception located to the right of the reading room. By 2012, this space had been redesigned into an entrance hall, while the reception had been combined with a cloakroom to form a multifunctional space. Meanwhile, the reading room further into the museum stayed unchanged, but it was separated from the adjacent space by the newly-installed lift shaft.
Turning to the first floor, the museum featured a special exhibition room, a shop, a staircase, and a cloakroom in order from left to right in 2008. In 2012, the special exhibition and shop saw no alteration, whereas the staircase was removed to make way for a new lift that improved accessibility. On the same level, the old cloakroom was repurposed into a new children’s play area.
By 2012, the museum had been vertically expanded to incorporate two additional floors. The third was devoted to dining and relaxation, featuring an open-air terrace positioned directly above the new entrance hall. On the same level, a restaurant and a self-service room were also introduced on the opposite sides of the lift. The fourth floor was also added and only included a single exhibition room on top of the self-service room.