National Museum of Photography, Film and Television

The National Museum of Photography, Film and Television (NMPFT) is part of the British National Museum of Science and Industry, and was founded in 1983. It is located in a former cinema on a hilltop location in the centre of Bradford, West Yorkshire.

It is the most popular museum in the UK outside London, and sees around 800,000 visitors per year. The NMPFT underwent a £16 million refurbishment in 1998, developing a new digital technology gallery and now also hosts the BBC's Bradford offices, and studios for BBC Radio Leeds.

The NMPFT collection contains over three million items of historical, cultural, and social value, including what are considered three 'key firsts' - the first photographic negative, the earliest television footage, the world's first example of moving pictures (Louis Le Prince's 1888 film of Leeds Bridge ). It also contains the original toys from the BBC series Playschool - the first programme to appear on BBC2.

The NMPFT incorporates Britain's first (and for a long time, only) IMAX cinema (for which an additional entry fee is charged - admission to most of the museum is free), and the Pictureville Cinema - the world's only cinema permanently equipped to display Cinerama films.

The NMPFT has recently publicly recommitted to photography by launching a new purpose-built gallery and detailing a future development strategy for the museum. The NMPFT has also taken possession of the Royal Photographic Society archives.

In 2007/8 the NMPFT plans to open a London venue.

The NMPFT publishes Archive magazine, a scholarly journal.

External link

• National Museum of Photography, Film and Television