Mary Rose Ship Hall and Museum

The Mary Rose Museum stands in the Historic Dockyard at Portsmouth, beside the water where the ship was built and lost. It holds the remains of a 16th-century warship raised from the seabed in 1982 after 437 years underwater. The museum opened in 1984 and now displays thousands of objects recovered from the wreck alongside the hull itself. Over a million visitors have walked past these relics since the first hall opened. The site is run by the Mary Rose Trust, a charity that cares for the ship and its artefacts. The museum’s present building dates from 2013 and was designed by WilkinsonEyre and Perkins+Will. Its construction required engineers to work above the listed dry dock while conserving the hull inside a sealed “hotbox.” Polyethylene glycol sprays stabilised the timbers for years before controlled air drying began. In 2016 the temporary walls were removed and the ship appeared behind glass for the first time. A later redevelopment removed that glass barrier so visitors now stand metres from the hull. Inside, the main hall places the ship at the centre, lit to show the surviving oak planks and internal decks. Artefacts line the walls—longbows, leather shoes, wooden bowls—each labelled with its discovery date. A walkway circles the hull at three levels, letting visitors see the shape of a Tudor warship in detail. Outside, the Historic Dockyard’s wooden walls and slipways recall the era when the Mary Rose was built and refitted.