A refugee who became a successful property developer has pledged to spend millions of pounds to build a Museum of Migration in the heart of the City of London.
Multi-millionaire Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia has offered to house the museum, currently based in Lewisham shopping centre, across three floors of a 20-storey tower he wants to build as student accommodation near Tower Hill. The museum says it can attract up to 140,000 visitors to the site every year.
The City has long said it wants to develop its status as a cultural destination and the proposal is being considered by the corporation’s planning committee next Tuesday.
Its backers include Dr Gus Casely-Hayford, the director of V&A East, but it is opposed by some local residents and representatives including the Lord Mayor, Nicholas Lyons.
Mr Ahluwalia, who founded his firm Dominus in 2011 having fled Idi Amin’s Uganda as a child, said moving the museum to the planned 65 Crutched Friars development would secure its future.
He has promised to donate £500,000 to pay for a fund-raising team to generate the £15 million needed for the move. His son Jay, who helps run the family firm, said: “Sadly there is so much negativity and focus on the so-called ‘migrant crisis’ — so it’s hugely important to show the other side of migration: when these people arrive, they do great things and we need to celebrate that.”
But opponents of the wider development, which includes room for 769 students, say it is too ambitious and would be “a disaster for our area”. Mr Lyons said the museum should be “incorporated in a refurbishment” of the current building.
Founded in 2017, the museum has also been based at other sites across London including a fire brigade workshop in Lambeth and City Hall.
