Since the mid-1980s, the hull of the "Mary Rose" has been kept in a covered dry dock while undergoing conservation. Although the hull has been open to the public for viewing, the need for keeping the ship saturated first with water and later a polyethylene glycol (PEG) solution meant that, before 2013, visitors were separated from the hull by a glass barrier. By 2007, the specially built ship hall had been visited by over seven million visitors since it first opened on 1983, just under a year after it was successfully raised.