Tomb Raider 30th Anniversary Exhibition Opens Near Lara Croft’s Derby Birthplace

A Tomb Raider 30th anniversary exhibition has opened in Derby, bringing Lara Croft back to the city where Core Design created one of gaming’s most recognisable characters.

As first reported by the BBC, Lara Croft: 30 Years On – From Derby to Global Icon opened at Pickford’s House on 24 July and transforms the Grade I listed Georgian property into a real-world interpretation of Croft Manor. The free exhibition runs until 28 November 2026.

The location gives the anniversary considerably more meaning than a conventional gaming exhibition. Pickford’s House sits only a short distance from Core Design’s former studio on Ashbourne Road, where Lara Croft and the original Tomb Raider were developed during the 1990s.

Derby Museums describes the event as the world’s first Tomb Raider exhibition of its kind, covering Lara’s journey from a video game character created in Derby to a global entertainment icon.

Original Core Design Hardware Is on Display

One of the most significant exhibits is a computer used by Core Design during development of the first five Tomb Raider games.

Rather than filling the exhibition entirely with commercially available memorabilia, Derby Museums has also secured original development material loaned by former Core Design developers.

That makes the exhibition particularly interesting from a preservation perspective. Visitors are seeing hardware and material connected directly to the Derby studio that built Lara’s earliest adventures, rather than simply looking back at the franchise through finished games.

Those original adventures have themselves found a new audience in recent years. The first three games were brought together in Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, which preserved the classic versions while adding modern visual and control options. GLN covered the collection when Tomb Raider I-III Remastered revived Lara Croft’s original trilogy for modern platforms. The trilogy later reached native 4K and up to 120 FPS on PS5.

The displays in Derby provide another way of tracing that evolution, showing how Lara changed visually as technology improved from the heavily polygonal character of the original game to the increasingly detailed versions that followed.

Lara Croft Became Bigger Than Tomb Raider

There is plenty of wider Tomb Raider history on display. Games, magazines, collectables, advertising material and costumes document the point at which Lara escaped the boundaries of video games and became a recognisable figure in popular culture.

That status has endured for three decades. In 2024, more than 4,000 players took part in a BAFTA poll that ultimately voted Lara Croft the most iconic video game character of all time, ahead of characters including Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog and Agent 47.

Lara’s expansion beyond games also took her to Hollywood, with Angelina Jolie playing the character in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in 2001 and The Cradle of Life in 2003.

Collector Luke Earle has co-curated the Derby exhibition and contributed material from his personal collection of around 400 pieces of Tomb Raider memorabilia. That gives the displays material from different periods of Lara’s history rather than concentrating solely on her 1996 debut.

The original game first launched for Sega Saturn in 1996 before versions followed for PlayStation and PC. What began as a new 3D adventure from a Derby development studio consequently became a franchise that has survived multiple generations of hardware, developers and versions of Lara Croft.

Pickford’s House Has Become Croft Manor

The choice of Pickford’s House allows Derby Museums to use an actual historic home as part of the presentation.

Instead of placing everything inside a conventional gallery, rooms throughout the property have been adapted around the Croft Manor concept. Visitors move through displays covering Lara’s creation, games and changing cultural identity.

Interactive activities are included alongside the historical exhibits, while Derby Museums is extending the celebration with dedicated Lara Croft cosplay days during the exhibition.

Those events are currently scheduled for 22 August, 26 September, 24 October and 21 November, giving visitors several opportunities to attend in costume while the exhibition is running.

The exhibition itself is free under Derby Museums’ Give What You Think model, although donations are welcomed.

Lara Croft: 30 Years On exhibition details

Thirty years after Lara Croft emerged from Core Design’s Derby studio, the anniversary exhibition has effectively brought the character back to where Tomb Raider started.

There is another fitting contrast in where the series stands today. The earliest Tomb Raider development hardware is now sitting inside a Derby museum, while Lara’s next adventures are already mapped out. Amazon Games has announced two new Tomb Raider games for 2026 and 2027, including Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Tomb Raider: Catalyst.

The original Core Design computer is perhaps the clearest symbol of that 30-year journey. A machine once used to build Lara Croft now sits only a short distance from the studio where she was created, surrounded by three decades of evidence showing just how far the character travelled.