Chatham’s Historic Dockyard will be welcoming a VIP visitor tomorrow.

Andy Burnham, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, will be at the dockyard to view the progress being made on the National Museums at Chatham project.

The dockyard has developed a unique partnership with the National Maritime Museum and the Imperial War Museum to create a new centre for world-class collection in Medway.

The project is described as being of national, regional and local significance. It will house and display the national museum partners’ maritime model collections and provide Thames Gateway Kent with its first international-standard touring exhibition gallery.

National Museums at Chatham will be located within No. 1 Smithery - a Scheduled Ancient Monument - providing 3,000 sq m of space for the new galleries and repositories.

A dockyard spokesman said: “The new centre will provide this important historic building with a sustainable re-use completing the physical regeneration of The Historic Dockyard.”