York’s JORVIK Viking Centre has re-opened to the public after a £1million revamp. Tony Greenway visits the world-famous venue – and discovers that the Viking story has never been so animated . . .

Director of attractions Sarah Maltby and creative director Rick Matthews with one of the new animatronic figures that will feature in the revamped JORVIK display

Here’s something I didn’t expect to be doing on a Monday morning. I’m in the bowels of York’s acclaimed JORVIK Viking Centre, being introduced to – and I’ll have to check my notes here – a Mr Sigurd the Antler Worker.

Sigurd has a face like thunder. I’m not sure why he isn’t happy, but it might be on account of his mad haircut, or possibly because of an accident he had with a saw which removed one of his fingers. I’m also introduced to Unni the Woodworker (similarly grumpy), plus Sigurd and Unni’s neighbour – an unnamed lady who is not, frankly, going be mistaken for Angelina Jolie any time soon.

“She’s not particularly attractive,” agrees Sarah Maltby, director of attractions at York Archaeological Trust, the charity which created the JORVIK Centre. “She’s arguing with her husband about what they’re going to have for dinner.”

Sigurd, Unni and the nameless lady don’t take offence because they are, after all, just models. Actually, that’s not fair. They’re not “just” models: They’re state-of-the-art animatronic characters which, together with four others, form part of the JORVIK Centre’s new £1million revamp, funded by the York Archaeological Trust.

When they are plugged in, their eyes follow you around the room, their mouths move and they talk directly to you in old Norse (voiced by York University MA and PhD students). Their skin is scarily lifelike – it’s made of latex – plus their hair is real. Each strand has been put in individually by hand.

The characters are based on archaeological evidence from York Archaeological Trust’s famous Coppergate dig, on which the JORVIK Centre now stands (it opened in 1984); and they’ve been designed and built by US-based Life Formations, the world leaders in high detail models, who have worked with visitor attractions including Disneyland, Hollywood Wax Museum and Ripley’s Auditoriums.

The real thing . . . Viking interactive staff get into character at the JORVIK Centre

Indeed, the models are so hot off the press that, this morning, they are still covered in bubblewrap. Even Sarah hasn’t seen them properly as finished “works” (although she played a big part in their design and look) – but when they are finally uncovered she’s as pleased as Punch. “Wow,” she says, pointing at Unni. “Look at him . . .” Ideally, the Trust would like to replace all the figures in the museum with animatronic marvels such as this. The price factor is an issue, however: Sigurd, Unni and co cost £30,000-£40,000 – each.

The decision to give JORVIK a revamp was taken a couple of years ago. 

“We were getting to the point where other museums were moving on quicker than we were,” says Sarah, “and any attraction has to revamp periodically to keep ahead of the game. We have undertaken small-scale improvements over the last seven years – but this is the biggest overhaul since the year 2000.

“New museums are always coming through, while established attractions are forever doing new things so we have to make investments. We are one of the better-known independent museums in the country so, to keep up the rankings, it’s important to constantly move forward.”

Apart from the animatronics, the JORVIK redevelopment will include an underfoot reconstruction of the original Coppergate excavation; the reconstruction of a new Viking-age house and backyard and an open gallery with glass windows that look out at the museum’s well-known time cars and under-floor excavations.

“The gallery is going to be a very exciting feature,” says Sarah. 

“We’ve reconstructed part of the Coppergate dig and we’re putting glass over it so you’ll be able to walk across it. Under your feet you’ll see how we did the excavation and what we found. So with this revamp, we’ve re-addressed the storyline of JORVIK and taken it back to the beginning.”

Because JORVIK is built on the actual site of the dig, one of its limitations is its physical size. The York Archaeological Trust can’t, therefore, decide to put an extension on the back – they have to be inventive with the space they have. “People sometimes ask: ‘Can’t you make the museum bigger?’” says Sarah. “The answer is no, sadly, we can’t. We’re underground, on the footprint of the original excavation, and the things you see here are what we really found. It’s all authentic.”

The displays

Incredibly, the revamp has been completed with minimal disruption to museum opening hours: In fact, JORVIK was only closed for four weeks in January while the essential building work went on. “Getting it all done in as short a time as possible has been the biggest challenge,” says Sarah. “We didn’t want to be closed for long. Some attractions can close for six months or a year when they undertake a big programme like this, but we’ve worked at night, plus we’ve closed off sections to the public to make the changes.”

It was a race against time, though, because the centre had to re-launch to kick-start the 25th annual JORVIK Viking Festival in February, the Trust’s biggest event of the year.

Sarah laughs. “Yes,” she says. “No pressure then . . .”

The company overseeing the JORVIK revamp is Buckinghamshire-based RMA Ltd, which has a strong track record in the attractions market, having worked on Cadbury World, Thomas Land and Thorpe Park, plus projects in Singapore, Malaysia, Holland, Scandinavia and New York.

“In the leisure attraction business, you hit problems every day,” says Rick Matthews, RMA’s creative director. “We’ll suddenly have a question about historical accuracy, for example. But the great thing about working with the York Archaeological Trust is the number of experts they have on-hand who can more or less give you the definitive answer then and there. Having knowledge on-tap like that is fantastic.”

RMA and JORVIK go way back. Years ago, Rick was working as an architect, designing resort hotels in the Caribbean. Once, he was creating a house in Barbados for Yorkshireman Ian Skipper, an entrepreneur and philanthropist (who sadly died last year).

Skipper, a former director of Heritage Projects, a company that built visitor attractions around the country, was heavily involved in JORVIK’S creation.

“Ian found out about this wonderful Viking dig,” says Rick. 

“He sent me back here to have a look at it, I started the master planning . . . and that’s how I got into the ‘theming’ business.” For Rick, working at JORVIK is a bit like coming home.

The best part of the process for Sarah Maltby has been seeing everything come together before her eyes.

“It’s gratifying to see all the changes take place at JORVIK,” she says. “The new gallery and the extra space we have now has made a vast improvement. It’ll make a big difference to the way we operate.”

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