Since the Science Museum Group took on the Science and Industry Museum in 2012, we have been working hard on an extensive and intensive programme of urgent repair and conservation work to the buildings the museum inhabits.
As a charity we have secured and invested over £32 million of national funding (including this latest investment) to maintain and repair our seven-acre estate since we took on its stewardship; however, historic buildings and sites do have a complexity of issues that date back many decades.
We take our responsibility of looking after our globally significant buildings seriously, and welcome this much-needed additional capital investment.
Completing this work now will mean generations can enjoy the museum for many years to come.
Discover more about our conservation projects and watch our video here.
New Warehouse is the building that visitors are welcomed into on arrival through our main entrance on Lower Byrom Street. It is home to three of our permanent galleries—Revolution Manchester, Textiles Gallery and Experiment—as well as two temporary exhibition spaces, including our spectacular Special Exhibitions Gallery.
New Warehouse dates from 1880. Its roof is in urgent need of repair, and maintenance is also needed to the gutters, drainage, windows and masonry. Fixing the roof now means we can ensure the New Warehouse's current and future galleries are protected from water ingress for the next 100 years and the museum can continue to offer the best possible experiences for visitors.
The building will also be made more sustainable through these works, with the roof repairs leading to greater thermal efficiency and futureproofing against predicted increased rainfall due to climate change.
The works will be carried out to meet the highest conservation and aesthetic principles.
Works are expected to get underway in autumn 2023. We will communicate a detailed timeline closer to the start date.
We will complete works on the New Warehouse by mid-2025.
We are aiming to keep the museum open as we progress these works. Parts of the New Warehouse will be wrapped in tarpaulin and scaffolding while works are ongoing. However, the internal galleries (Revolution Manchester, Textiles Gallery, Experiment and our temporary exhibition spaces, including the Special Exhibitions Gallery) will all stay open as normal.
As a science and industry museum we believe that the work taking place can be a positive part of our story and we want to share our progress with visitors. We will be embracing the live engineering happening across the museum to host some special construction-themed STEM activities, as well as introduce new displays where visitors can find out more about the restoration project and other works happening across the site.
We know from experience visitors can enjoy fun, playful and informative days out while capital works are underway at our site. We will aim to keep noise disturbance associated with the works to a minimum.
Yes. We are aiming to continue with our planned programme of special exhibitions and events to showcase our collection and create some great science experiences for audiences over the coming years.
We are working on ensuring that the main museum entrance is as unaffected as possible. However, there will be some temporary scaffold around it at times.
The café entrance will be unaffected.
Our We Are Changing web pages will keep you up to date about our multi-million-pound regeneration scheme and the works to the New Warehouse specifically.
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