London home for Migration Museum gets nod

A new permanent home for London’s Migration Museum has been given the green light by the City of London.

The Corporation’s Planning Applications Sub-Committee approved the scheme, which will see the museum based across three floors of a new 21-storey tower.

The building at 65 Crutched Friars will also include exhibition and event space, a cafe and shop, plus accommodation for more than 700 students above that.

The museum’s venue is being provided rent-free by property developer Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia, who himself came to England as a refugee aged 13 when his family fled Idi Amin’s Uganda.

The businessman has promised the space at no cost for 60 years and will cover the museum's operating costs for the first three years.

He has also donated £500,000 to support its fundraising campaign to pay for the move.

The museum is currently based in a temporary home in Lewisham, where it is likely to stay until at least 2025.

Migration Museum CEO Sophie Henderson said the new space would be “an inspiring venue for diverse audiences from across the City, London and beyond to come together to explore, discuss and reflect on key questions around migration, identity and belonging”.

She added: “We are creating Britain’s missing museum, exploring how the movement of people to and from the City, London and the UK has shaped who we all are today – as individuals, as communities and as nations.”