Wellington Museum


Wellington Museum is a museum on Queens Wharf in Wellington, New Zealand. It occupies the 1892 Bond Store, a historic building on Jervois Quay on the waterfront of Wellington Harbour. It was recently voted as one of the top 50 museums in the world The Times, London.
The museum has four floors covering the history of Wellington. Celebrating the city's maritime history, early Māori and European settlement, and the growth of the region, the museum seeks to tell Wellington's stories and how the city has evolved over its 150 years as capital of New Zealand. A giant cinema screen stretching between the ground, first and second floors shows a series of films about Wellington. There are three theatre areas: one tells Māori legends using a 'Peppers Ghost', the other is a memorial to the tragic sinking of the Wahine ferry in Wellington harbour and located on the top floor a Wellington Time Machine. A new exhibition space, The Attic, opened in late 2015 after extensive refurbishment and restoration to the top floor.

Background

The museum started in 1972 as the Wellington Maritime Museum of the Wellington Harbour Board.
In 1989, with the reorganisation of local bodies throughout New Zealand, the museum was transferred to the Wellington City Council and expanded in scope to include social history of the region. The conversion of this building into the Museum of Wellington City & Sea was completed in 1999, and it became Wellington Museum in July 2015. It is run by Experience Wellington.