MORE than 500,000 visitors are expected to come to Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum every year following a £61m facelift.

The museum in Beaumont Street is about to reopen following a multi-million redevelopment which was part-funded by a £15m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The new building, designed by Rick Mather Architects, features six floors and a rooftop restaurant called The Ashmolean Dining Room.

Charles Cockerell’s Grade I-listed frontage from 1845 remains and inside there are 39 new galleries.

These include four temporary exhibition galleries and a new education centre.

Museum director Dr Christopher Brown said they were getting 400,000 visitors a year before the attraction closed 10 months ago.

He added: “We’ve done our sums on the estimate of 500,000 visitors a year but we hope for more. I do want higher visitor numbers – this is a very large museum and I want visitors to come.

“When I arrived at the museum (in 1998) the front door was closed and you had to go through a door at the side. For local visitors we will publicise our activities more and during the summer we will have evening opening too.

“Our schools outreach programme will also be very active.”

Dr Brown said the museum would now be able to show more of its collections, including those “never seen before”.

He said the environmentally-controlled gallery space meant the museum could now show additional exhibits including textiles.

Dr Brown said the building was now also more secure, and added: “We had a theft here on Millennium Eve when a Cezanne was stolen – it was one of the worst experiences of my time as director.”

At a press conference to publicise the museum opening to the public on Saturday, November 7, Prof Andrew Hamilton, Oxford University’s Vice-Chancellor, said: “The Ashmolean is a world-class teaching and research centre, but it is also a great public museum, free and open to the city of Oxford, the county of Oxfordshire, the nation and the world. The new Ashmolean is a powerful statement of the way in which Oxford’s dynamic future is being fuelled by the richness of its past.”

The museum has a new approach to its displays, entitled Crossing Cultures Crossing Time, which attempts to show how civilisations of the east and west have developed as part of an inter-related world.

Architect Rick Mather said space in the museum had increased from 5,000 sq m to 10,000sq m.

He added: “You never feel like you are in a labyrinth, which I did previously.”

Dame Jenny Abramsky, chairman of the Heritage Lottery Fund, added: “The Ashmolean is like a dear old friend to the people of Oxfordshire – a familiar landmark in the heart of academia.

“Now fully refurbished, this wonderful building has maintained its original charm but also taken on a fresh new energy and openness.”