Image: The visitor centre will open in autumn 2013

English Heritage has announced that contractor Vinci Construction UK has now moved on site to start work on a £27m transformation of the visitor facilities at Stonehenge, UK.

A new visitor centre designed by Denton Corker Marshall is to be built at Airman's Corner, which is 1.5 miles (2.4km) west of the prehistoric landmark and World Heritage Site.

Haley Sharpe Design has been appointed to develop the interpretation of the new exhibition spaces, which will explore the history of the site and its relationship with its surroundings.

The visitor centre will house important items excavated near Stonehenge on loan from local museums, along with education rooms and amenities with full disabled access.

Funding for the project has come almost entirely from the Heritage Lottery Fund, as well as the Garfield Weston Foundation, the Linbury Trust and the Wolfson Foundation.

English Heritage chief executive Dr Simon Thurley said: "A new dawn at Stonehenge is truly upon us. Though the stones themselves have never failed to awe visitors their setting has been a national embarrassment and disgrace.

"The restoration of the landscape together with a major new exhibition on site will finally give our greatest and most famous monument the treatment it deserves."

The visitor centre and galleries are due to open in autumn 2013, with the existing facilities to be removed by summer 2014 to allow for the restoration of the Stonehenge landscape.

Details: www.english-heritage.org.uk