Official UK procurement notice
OGH Beta Principal Contractor
Authority: Natural History Museum (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe Old General Herbarium (OGH) Beta Project is a light touch refurbishment of a section of the OGH gallery to bring it back into public display for the first time since 1948. The project will install a temporary pop-up display opening in September 26. This is a light touch refurbishment of the front half of the gallery space allowing it to open up to visitors including the installation of the Pop-up exhibition offer lasting approximately 18-months. This offer is the first phase of a bigger project which is part of the NHM 150 programme. The Pop-up will act as a test bed for the planned permanent gallery which will involve full refurbishment and exhibition installation through the OGH gallery opening 2029 TBC.
In order to access the tender documents for the OGH Beta Principal Contractor tender exercise, all tenderers must complete the NDA available in the SQ stage document library. The 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 from the 30th April 2026.
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 own published record, next to the published market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. 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.
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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.
Here, local means registered in Greater London.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in Greater London.
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How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the deadline to the first award notice, on competitions that published both dates.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards were announced within 16 days of the bid deadline.
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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?
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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% / 26%
4–648% / 33%
7+26% / 24%
How did awards compare with estimates?
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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 estimate50% / 32%
Within ±2%41% / 32%
Above estimate9% / 37%
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.
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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£140k
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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 46 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid17%
2–326%
4–633%
7+24%
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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.
| Supplier | This buyer’s earlier contract | Lot | Award value | Why listed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sam Forster Associates LtdEarlier contract | OGH Beta Principal Contractorended Aug 2026 | — | £188k | Matched as the earlier contract |
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.
What this replaces i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
100% title match.
A past supplier may not bid again.
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Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
100% title match.
A past supplier may not bid again.
The prior contract this notice most likely re-tenders · matched by title and category (100% title match), the holder is not guaranteed to re-bid
OGH Beta Principal Contractor — held by Sam Forster Associates Ltd; the published contract ends 31 Aug 2026.
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
- 18 Mar 2026, 10:51 GMT
- Last source update
- 18 Mar 2026, 10:51 GMT
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-024447- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-066d2bFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
18 Mar 2026 → 29 May 2026 · 3 dates- Planning notice published216 days ago18 Mar 2026, 10:51 GMT
- Market engagement186 days ago17 Apr 2026, 23:59 BST
11 suppliers have been contacted with information about the process to gauge interest.
"I am contacting you as the Project Manager of a new exciting Pop-up Project at the Natural History Museum South Kensington. This email is part of our pre-tender market engagement ahead of Tender documents being posted via E-Dela on Monday 30th March 2026 with a closing date of Friday 1st May. The approximate value of the contract is £140k.
The Natural History Museum is undertaking a programme of new gallery refurbishment and creation to mark its 150th Anniversary. The Pop-up exhibition ‘Human Nature’ will be based in our Old General Herbarium Gallery (OGH) on the second floor of the prestigious Hinze Hall. The OGH is a beautifully presented Grade 1 listed space (approx. 300sqm) which has been closed to the public for the last 80 years. Please see the gallery pictured below.
The OGH Beta Project is a light touch refurbishment of the front half of the gallery space allowing it to open up to visitors including the installation of the Pop-up exhibition offer opening in September 2026 and lasting approximately 18-months. This offer is the first phase of a bigger project which is part of the NHM 150 programme. The Pop-up will act as a test bed for the planned permanent gallery which will involve full refurbishment and exhibition installation through the OGH gallery opening 2029 TBC."
Interested suppliers must complete the NDA available in the SQ stage document library. The 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 from the 30th April 2026.
- Contract starts145 days ago29 May 2026, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published18 Mar 2026, 10:51 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