The Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth was among the chief winners at the Museums and Heritage Awards on May 14, scooping two trophies at the ceremony in London.

The £27m harbourside structure, whose Wilkinson Eyre design has already won award nominations, marks its first anniversary this month and looks to be a strong contender for won award nominations">The Art Fund Museum of the Year award in July.

The museum houses the restored Tudor ship the Mary Rose – which sank in 1545 and was famously rediscovered in 1971. It was then salvaged in 1981 – alongside almost 20,000 related 16th-century artefacts.

The Mary Rose Museum was presented with the restoration/conservation award, fending off competition from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. It also won the best permanent exhibition, beating the National Maritime Museum’s Nelson, Navy, Nation.

The Museums and Heritage Awards, which saw the Victoria and Albert Museum claim two trophies as well as winning the Best of the Best category, honour innovation and excellence in the world of British museums and cultural institutions.

To read a feature on the design challenges posed by the launch of The Mary Rose Museum from the 2013 edition of Attractions Management magazine, click here.