It has been announced that Beaulieu will not be renewing the lease of the world-famous National Motor Museum which expires in 2030.
The museum can trace its origins back to 1952 when Edward, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu, put on display five veteran cars as a tribute to his pioneering motorist father, John, 2nd Baron Montagu. That soon became the Montagu Motor Museum in 1956 and then the purpose-built National Motor Museum opened in July 1972. Run by the National Motor Museum Trust, the collection now has over 250 vehicles and almost two million items of automobilia.
Neither the Trust nor Beaulieu has stated the precise reasons for not renewing the lease, with the Trust saying that it is a ‘once in a generation opportunity to transform the Museum for the future’. An official statement added that the museum intends to ‘greatly expand its work in learning and community engagement, including a vision for the development of a training centre for heritage engineering apprenticeships’. It appears that discussions between the Trust and the Montagu family over the last two years had come to an impasse with the official reason being given that Beaulieu didn’t offer the redevelopment potential the Trust’s future plans envisaged.
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Where the new home will be – and whether it will be an existing venue or a new purpose-built facility – is as yet unknown. It also casts doubt over the future of the successful Spring and International Autojumbles (the latter of which takes place on September 12-13, 2026) held at Beaulieu. However, the Montagu family owns a large number of vehicles currently on display and it seems it intends to continue to run a motor museum at Beaulieu; Lord Montagu of Beaulieu commented: “Beaulieu will continue to develop as a leading south coast attraction, offering a comparable range of experiences to what people enjoy today, with cars remaining very much a part of our identity.”
For now, the National Motor Museum will continue to function as normal.
Original article appeared in Old Bike Mart. To subscribe, click here: https://www.classicmagazines.co.uk/old-bike-mart
