The Mosaic space at the heart of the building is the Berryfield Mosaic, a Roman artefact unearthed in 1923 on the site on which the building now stands. The Mosaic has been painstakingly cleaned and returned to its original home, as the galleries only permanent exhibit.
This spectacular Mosaic was found in the location on which the gallery now stands in 1923.
The find was made by tenant gardener William Lewis, while he was digging a hole for rubbish in the gardens of East Hill House.
After its discovery, the mosaic was lifted and donated to Colchester Castle Museum by the landowner Douglas Round. For more than eighty years it was displayed propped up against the wall in the Castle’s well house.
The construction of the gallery was the ideal opportunity to conserve and re‐display this artefact horizontally and in its original position. Now it can be appreciated as it would have looked – as the dining room floor of a Roman townhouse.
The gallery building lies on Scheduled Ancient Monument land, with archaeological artefacts buried beneath. This meant a ‘no-dig’ policy: conventional foundations could not be dug. Instead, the vast 3,200 square metre building is supported by a giant concrete ‘raft’, which floats above the ground. It is built on a steel frame, and clad entirely in TECU Gold – a malleable copper-aluminium alloy that had to be applied by hand by a team of plumbers! The spectacular front portico rises to 11 metres high, and frames the lobby with imposing full-height glazing. An interior promenade carries visitors from the vast entrance space which comprises exhibition space and a shop selling design-led gifts, through the outer curve of the building, past the gallery spaces, and through to the Restaurant at the rear. The building is lit throughout with natural light, using wide glazing on the inside arc, high-level ‘clerestory’ windows in the Mosaic space and restaurant, and on the outside arc, by a narrow strip of glazing at floor level that maximises the use of daylight from morning until dusk. The state-of-the-art auditorium seats 190 people and boasts a six-metre tab tension screen. Clad with overlapping cherrywood panels, it will be used for screenings, lectures, presentations and performances. The gallery spaces lie towards the rear of the building. They include the Giles and Sonia Coode-Adams Gallery and the Foundation for Sport and the Arts Gallery, a climate-controlled, museum-quality hanging space.
Much stealth will be needed here, please replace exactly as found.