Dont think the relocation for the Old GW watch tower has had much to do with the RAF museum. The original GW hangar and watch tower had to be moved as part of the site developement consent. Most of the funding for their relocation will have come from the developer and maybe some grant aid from various preservation funds, the only RAFM money will have been to improve public access and and climate control systems, which was not cheap and caused much delay to the original openning.
Any future expansion at Hendon will most likely have to be self funding ie by imposing an admission charge. Whilst I do not object to such a charge, I feel that the charge should not be so high as to put off regular and repeat visitors. If I am in London on business, and time allows, I will happily hop the a tube and spend maybe as little as an hour at Hendon, but a charge, say, in excess of £6 would put me off.
Some USA museums seem to have a system where there is a modest charge to enter the museum, but an addition charge for guided tours of restoration workshops / storage areas. An excellent idea for some where like Cosford or FAA.
Last year a planned visit to Duxford was cancelled because although my friend wanted to visit, our respective partners would have expected to have joined us. The excessive admission price (£16+ ?) proved to much. therefor nobody visited, had admission been lower say £8 the income that day would have been over £30 plus purchases from shop / cafe. Same applies to cafe prices like £2.50 for a coffee, forget it!! If price was £1.25 then £5 is spent plus extras like cake / sandwich etc.
Museum administrators need to think long and hard before imposing high admission charges, keep it simple, avoid complex special offers, family tickets and concessions, keep it cheap, maybe offer ‘second visit free’ (something the FAA Museum does / did I think ?)
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