• Conservationists are opposing a plan by the British Museum to overhaul its forecourt, warning it would disrupt its historic symmetry.
• Studio Weave’s plan adds security pavilions and a Mediterranean-style garden to improve visitor flow.
• Critics urge Camden Council to reject the plan, though Historic England believes it delivers significant improvements.

Historical conservation societies have decried the British Museum‘s plans to overhaul its front courtyard. The new design—intended to make entry into the museum more efficient—would introduce two security pavilions and a botanical garden, but critics claim these additions would detract from the museum’s 19th-century, classical-style facade.

The leading London museum has planned to install two security pavilions to replace its temporary anti-terrorism marquees and convert its front lawn into a “Mediterranean”-style botanical garden. These changes, spearheaded by the London-based architectural practice Studio Weave, are part of a larger “Masterplan” renovation of the museum. The new “visitor flow will drastically reduce queuing at both entrances,” the studio promised, when its final design was made public last fall.

The proposal is still pending approval by the local Camden Council, but one conservation society, the Georgian Group, is calling for it to be rejected.

Visual rendering of north facade of British Museum with security pavilion by Studio Weave. Image: © Studio Weave.

“The proposed pavilion would partially obscure views” of the building’s southern facade, it said in a January 27 public objection letter, “disrupting the building’s symmetry and undermining its setting.”

The planning application for Studio Weave’s design noted that the pavilions will be clad in stone and steel. They are intended to be less of an intrusive presence than the white plastic marquees that they would replace.

The botanical garden, meanwhile, “would be visually incongruous in the highly formal and restrained setting,” according to the Georgian Group. “The forecourt was deliberately designed as a formal prelude to the grand portico and colonnade, and its clarity and symmetry are central to the experience and understanding of the building,” it said.

The group added that, while it recognizes “the operational challenges faced by the museum,” its building “represents the high point of Greek Revival architecture in Britain.” The building was designed by Robert Smirke and construction took place between 1823 and 1852.

Initial concept design by Studio Weave, announced in 2024. The pavilion resets the visitor’s relationship with the forecourt and landscape. Image: © Studio Weave.

In another objection letter, the Victorian Society‘s southern conservation adviser Morgan Ellis Leah said the group “strongly” objects to Studio Weave’s design.

She added that the committee recommends that an alternative, more discreet location be found for the proposed pavilion. For example, a placement closer to the museum’s entrance railings, would limit any “harm” caused to “the importance of Smirke’s grand triumphal facade.”

In the summer of 2025, the society had expressed concern that a previous design issued by Studio Weave, in which a visual render of an “elegant professional sipping from champagne flutes,” might give the impression of a “wine bar.” They urged that “the appearance of the pavilions should effect the practical function they facilitate,” influencing the final designs submitted by Studio Weave that fall.

Historic England, the U.K. government’s statutory adviser on English heritage, offered a favorable assessment of the design. It judged that “the scheme has the potential to deliver meaningful improvements to the arrival experience at the museum, which should be balanced against the low levels of harm that would be caused.”

The British Museum has declined to comment while the planning application is still under review.