Official UK procurement notice
Gallery 33 Strip Out and Refurbishment Heritage Principal Contractor
Authority: Natural History Museum (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe Natural History Museum is tendering for a Heritage Principal Contractor (Strip Out and Refurbishment) to deliver our vision for the building and its new permanent exhibition in Gallery 33, replacing the current Creepy Crawlies gallery on the ground floor of the Grade 1 listed Waterhouse East Building. This new, permanent gallery at South Kensington will be dedicated to building a positive connection to nature in our very youngest audiences - aged 4-7 years old - and their adults.
The Gallery 33 Strip Out & Refurbishment Project will be split into two key phases:
•Phase 1: Strip Out of the existing 1980’s exhibition
•Phase 2: Internal refurbishment of the gallery
In order to participate in the tender exercise for the Strip Out and Refurbishment Heritage Principal Contractor, an NDA must be signed by an appropriate representative of the tendering company and returned to the Museum for countersignature. Once the NDA has been completed by both parties, it will be sent to tenderers for record keeping. The tenderer will then be added to the Tenderbox stage, where the tender documents will be made available.
To access the NDA, please use the following link: www.delta-esourcing.com/respond/3ZP5KV7RS5 ↗
For more information about this opportunity, please visit the Delta eSourcing portal at:
www.delta-esourcing.com/tenders/UK-UK-London… ↗
To respond to this opportunity, please click here:
CPV: Construction work for art and cultural buildings · Construction work for buildings relating to exhibitions · Library, archives, museums and other cultural services · Museum construction work · Museum services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Natural History Museum buys Building construction work (CPV 4521), and who usually turns up
Natural History Museum’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Building construction work (CPV 4521) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
i
How often small and medium firms win.
Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.
The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
i
How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered. The market figure counts awards delivered in Greater London (authority’s region).
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards have an award date within 16 days of the bid deadline.
i
How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.
Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.
Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
Missing bid counts may hide more single-bid awards. This share is a minimum.
How many bids did past lots attract?
i
How many bids past lots received.
Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.
Past bids do not predict this tender.
1 bid9% / 17%
2–317% / 27%
4–648% / 31%
7+26% / 25%
How did awards compare with estimates?
i
Where winning prices landed against estimates.
Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.
Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.
Below estimate54% / 32%
Within ±2%38% / 32%
Above estimate8% / 36%
Assess each lot i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list
Lot #1CPV 4521Published estimate£1.5m
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How many bids this lot may attract.
The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.
Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 48 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid17%
2–327%
4–631%
7+25%
i
Where the award price may land.
The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.
No comparable awards for this lot yet.
A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.
Who has supplied this buyer on similar work? i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.
Who could compete for this lot? i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.
About this data
- Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
- Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
- Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
- Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Works
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Below threshold
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 19 Nov 2025, 19:05 GMT
- Last source update
- 19 Nov 2025, 19:05 GMT
- FTS notice number
2025/S 000-075445- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Not published
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-05e4e3Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
19 Nov 2025 → 2 Mar 2026 · 3 dates- Planning notice published342 days ago19 Nov 2025, 19:05 GMT
- Market engagement292 days ago8 Jan 2026, 23:59 GMT
The engagement has not yet been carried out.Engagement process description:
In order to participate in this tender exercise, an NDA must be completed by an appropriate representative of the company. The NDA must be signed and returned to the Museum for countersignature. Once countersigned, the completed NDA will be sent back the tenderers for record keeping.
The tender exercise is intended to be published w/c 24 November 2025.
- Contract starts240 days ago2 Mar 2026
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published19 Nov 2025, 19:05 GMTUK2
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Pipeline notice- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender