Mayday from the 'Cutty Sark' receives £13m lottery grant

The Cutty Sark was saved from closure and destruction yesterday after a plan to rescue the ship was awarded a £13m grant.

The Cutty Sark was saved from closure and destruction yesterday after a plan to rescue the ship was awarded a £13m grant.

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) award, one of six totalling £78m, was greeted with relief by supporters of the ship.

The Cutty Sark is the last surviving tea clipper from the glory years of sail when, for example, she raced from Australia to England via Cape Horn in 72 days in 1885.

She has attracted thousands of visitors since she was docked in Greenwich, south London, 50 years ago but desperately needs attention to stop corrosion, caused by sea salt rotting her iron frame, that would have rendered her dangerous within the next couple of years. The planned restoration work will take place inside a transparent inflatable envelope designed by the Eden Project architect Sir Nicholas Grimshaw. It will allow visitors to see the repairs being carried out.

When the Cutty Sark Trust first applied for lottery money five years ago it was turned down, but the revised plans have extracted £1.2m development funding and a pledge of a further £11.7m. The trust needs to raise another £12m itself.

Carole Souter, director of the HLF, said the project was a wonderful use of lottery money. "She is an iconic symbol and evokes a powerful sense of British history, contributing to modern-day London."

Richard Doughty, the trust's chief executive, said: "The Heritage Lottery Fund has, in effect, saved the ship. Without this funding, we would be looking at the closure of the ship in 2007 and perhaps demolition."

Cutty Sark supporters were not the only people celebrating yesterday. In Scotland, a £17.7m grant from the HLF will help secure an incomparable publishing archive for the National Library of Scotland.

The archive is the history of the John Murray publishing house which was established in Edinburgh in 1768. It comprises 150,000 manuscripts, papers and correspondence between the publisher and influential figures such as Charles Darwin, David Livingstone, Jane Austen, Sir Walter Scott, Thomas Carlyle, Benjamin Disraeli and William Ewart Gladstone. It also includes the most extensive collection of Byron's work in the world.

Colin McLean, of the HLF in Scotland, said the archive was "a treasure trove that illustrates a period of extraordinary intellectual and literary endeavour. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and we are delighted to help ensure it can now stay in the UK". Although £6.5m needs to be raised, the purchase would now be possible.

Other recipients this week were four cash-strapped museums. Nearly £16m has been pledged towards plans for a new museum of transport in Glasgow, the Riverside Museum. The Tank Museum in Bovington, Dorset, has been awarded nearly £8.9m. The Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, which is more than 100 years old, is to receive £8.5m for a major overhaul. And nearly £9.2m has been pledged to create the Great North Museum in Newcastle.