New home for UK's largest film and TV archive

The UK’s largest collection of film and television footage has a new city centre home in Plymouth, making it easier for people to visit and see some of the incredible historic moments captured on film across the region.

The South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA) is moving to Catherine Street in Plymouth’s city centre (directly behind the Treasury building) and will be open for business from Monday 28 July, after almost 15 years at the Royal William Yard.

The move has been made possible with support and funding by Plymouth City Council. Deputy Leader, Councillor Peter Smith, said: “We’re extremely pleased that we’ve been able to work with SWFTA to find them a new home. They are an absolutely crucial partner in the developing History Centre project and their collection is priceless in terms of the local and regional history it captures. SWFTA’s new location will attract more people to our city centre which we hope will also benefit the surrounding businesses.”

The building on Catherine Street is owned by the Council and has undergone a major refurbishment to make it a suitable home for SWFTA for the next five years whilst the Plymouth History Centre is developed. This comes following a successful bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund which recently resulted in £12.8M of funding being awarded to the city.

Stacey Dyer, Executive Archive Director for SWFTA, said: “We’re all very excited about our move to Catherine Street which will open up many fantastic opportunities for the archive, especially as we embark on some large scale projects and partnerships with the wider cultural and heritage community.

“Our move to central premises within the heart of the city has been made entirely possible through the support of one of our key partners, Plymouth City Council. It provides us with the ideal location to work closely with the Council and our other partners in developing the

Plymouth History Centre project which, ultimately, will be the long-term home for the archive when it opens in 2019.”

The relocation of such a large collection of highly sensitive materials involves a great deal of logistical planning and work. It is therefore essential and unavoidable that SWFTA will close to the general public for six weeks from Wednesday 11 June until Monday 28 July 2014.

Stacey continues: “Whilst we appreciate there may be some teething problems – not surprising considering we are the largest regional film archive repository in the UK – the SWFTA team is united in making sure that there will be minimal disruption to the excellent services we provide when we open our doors again at the end of July.”

For more information about SWFTA visit www.swfta.co.uk and for more information about the Plymouth History Centre project visit www.loveourpast.co.uk