'Exciting' new Victor Hugo Centre plans approved
BBCA planned educational and cultural Victor Hugo Centre has moved a step closer to completion after planning permission was granted.
The States of Guernsey approved the plans to transform the former States Office building and information centre in St Peter Port.
Hugo, spent 15 years in Guernsey from 1855 to 1870 during his exile from France when he wrote his celebrated novels Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
Larry Malcic, chair of the Victor Hugo Centre Guernsey LBG said securing planning permission was a major milestone and was a step closer to creating a permanent Guernsey home for Hugo's "extraordinary legacy".
Hugo was exiled from his native France when Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew, later Napoleon III, seized power in a coup in 1851, according to literary scholar Graham Robb.
Plans were submitted in July and the States said it would create an "exciting, interactive and immersive celebration" of a "global icon" that would feature a museum and interpretation centre, a performance and event space and a learning hub.
The company said it would continue to work on the detailed design and tender documents with local architects DLM and exhibition designers Casson Mann.
With the project expected to go out to tender early 2027, with construction due to begin in the spring.
Malcic thanked the islanders who had "contributed more than £7.5 million towards the capital works and endowment and to the States of Guernsey".
"There is still work to do and more funding to raise for the long-term sustainability of the project, but this approval allows us to move confidently into the next stage."
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