Southend-on-Sea Borough Council has appointed designers for the town's new £35m museum.

Manchester-based AEW architects have been selected, along with consultants Turner & Townsend and Buro Happold, to create the attraction which is set to be built in Southend's Cliff Gardens. When completed, the museum will display artifacts from the Saxon King's burial chamber, which were recovered during an archaeological investigation found in Prittlewell in 2003. The chamber contained more than 140 items including gold-rimmed drinking horns, a gold belt dating between 600-640AD and Byzantine silver spoon.

The museum will also house collections currently at Southend Central Museum and the Beecroft Art Gallery in Westcliff. The council's executive councillor fro culture, councillor Derek Jarvis, said: "The Saxon King's burial chamber was hailed as possibly the most spectacular discovery of its kind during the past 50 years.