The Rooms
Provincial museum, art gallery and archives above St John's harbour, shaped like fishing rooms.
The Rooms opened on Bonaventure Avenue in June 2005, bringing together the Provincial Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Provincial Art Gallery and the Provincial Archives in a single building above the Narrows. It stands on the site of Fort Townshend, an eighteenth-century British fortification, and archaeological remains uncovered during construction are interpreted on the lower levels. The name and the massing refer to the fishing rooms, the clusters of sheds and stages once used to process cod along the coast.
The stepped gabled blocks, by Philip Pratt, Charles Henley and Paul Blackwood of the PHB Group, use local granite and wood, brushed aluminium and large areas of glass, and a tall atrium window frames a view over the harbour, the city and Signal Hill. The museum galleries cover the natural history, archaeology and social history of the province, including Beothuk, Innu, Inuit and Mi'kmaq material and the Elders' Room. The art gallery holds a collection of Newfoundland and Labrador art with changing exhibitions, and the archives make provincial records and photographs available to researchers.
Highlights
- Atrium window with a panoramic view over St John's harbour
- Built on the site of the eighteenth-century Fort Townshend
- Provincial museum, art gallery and archives under one roof
- Galleries on Beothuk, Innu, Inuit and Mi'kmaq history and culture
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