Science and Industry Museum

The Science and Industry Museum (formerly known as the Museum of Science and Industry) in Manchester, England, is a large museum devoted to the development of science, technology and industry with emphasis on the city's achievements in these fields. The museum is part of the Science Museum Group, a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, having merged with the National Science Museum in 2012.[2]

Science and Industry Museum
Entrance structure reflecting its science/industrial themes
Location within Greater Manchester
Established15 September 1983
LocationLiverpool Road, Manchester, England
Coordinates53°28′37″N 2°15′20″W
TypeScience museum
Visitors704,732 (2018)[1]
Public transit accessMetroshuttle – Green Route
Website
Science Museum Group
Exterior of the museum's Air and Space Hall
A kamikaze Ohka aircraft in exhibition
The museum's Avro Shackleton

There are extensive displays on the theme of transport (cars, aircraft, railway locomotives and rolling stock), power (water, electricity, steam and gas engines), Manchester's sewerage and sanitation, textiles, communications and computing.

The museum is an Anchor Point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage; and is situated on the site of the world's first passenger railway station – Manchester Liverpool Road – which opened as part of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in September 1830. The railway station frontage and 1830 warehouse are both Grade I listed.

History

The museum was originally called the North Western Museum of Science and Industry when it opened in 1969 in temporary premises on Grosvenor Street in Chorlton-on-Medlock. It had close ties with UMIST, having mostly grown out of the Department of History of Science & Technology.

In 1978, Greater Manchester Council purchased the earliest part of the former Liverpool Road Station from British Rail, which had been closed in 1975. The council paid the nominal sum of £1 for the site. The museum opened at this site on 15 September 1983 and later expanded to include the whole of the former station.[3]

Since 2007 the museum has organised an annual science festival in Manchester.

In 2014, it was announced Sally MacDonald would become the director. MacDonald left her role as head of collections at University College London and succeeded Jean Franczyk as director.[4]

Exhibitions

Exhibits at the Science and Industry Museum include:

Aircraft

Computing and Communications
  • A replica of the Manchester Baby
  • A Connected Earth gallery that tells the history of communications in Manchester and the North West of England opened in October 2007.

Locomotives
NS 1505 Ariadne outside the museum

Former galleries

Previous permanent exhibition galleries which have now been decommissioned include:

  • Electricity Gallery - generation, distribution and use of electricity
  • Gas Gallery - past to present look at the gas industry
  • Underground Manchester - sanitation and water supply
  • A space-themed gallery, with exhibits encompassing historical space flight, space science and also science-fiction, formerly took up the majority of the upper balcony of the Air and Space hall. This was eventually considered outdated and removed in its entirety.

Some past exhibitions

Railway

Until 2018, demonstration passenger trains ran within the museum grounds on selected dates. Trains were hauled by the museum's two operational steam locomotives:

The museum's railway line was formerly connected to the national rail network near Ordsall Lane Junction. However, construction of Network Rail's Ordsall Chord railway link, which was completed in 2017, has now severed this connection and significantly shortened the museum's running line despite a legal battle to save it.

As of 2019, railway operations at the museum were suspended indefinitely.

Industrial machines
The last steam engine ever built to power a mill
Spinning machine

The museum exhibits the large collection of stationary steam engines, hot air engines, diesel engines, hydraulic pumps, large electric generators and other similar machines. Most of these machines are operational and occasionally can be seen running. This exhibit includes the last stationary steam engine built to power a mill.

There is also the exhibit of spinning and weaving machines, covering all the steps from wool to textile. These machines are run for a few minutes at scheduled times.

Adjacent St John's Quarter

The museum is adjacent to a £1 billion redevelopment area on the former site of Granada Studios. Work on the area, which will be known as St John's Quarter, is expected to be completed by 2022.[7] The Manchester International Festival's new Factory venue is set to open alongside the MSI at the end of 2019 as part of the redevelopment.[8]

The MSI have been granted planning permission to build a new Special Exhibition Gallery on the ground floor of the New Warehouse. Architectural firm Carmody Groarke won a competition to design the new gallery which is set to be complete by October 2020.[9]

In July 2016 the council stated that, along with development partner Allied London, they had been in talks with the MSI "exploring how the presence of Factory opens up new possibilities for revitalising the whole area below Deansgate as a creative hub, with a joined up and extensive public realm. MSI's own developments plans are being aligned with this creative vision and the museum itself will become part of the creative public realm, with MSI's creative science offer balancing the creative and cultural production of Factory."[8]

See also

References
  1. "ALVA - Association of Leading Visitor Attractions". www.alva.org.uk. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  2. "Manchester's MOSI and London's Science Museum to merge". BBC News. 2 December 2011. Retrieved 19 September 2012.
  3. "History of the Museum — MOSI". Museum of Science and Industry. Archived from the original on 31 October 2007. Retrieved 14 March 2009.
  4. Yakub, Qureshi. "Respected curator named as new boss of Museum of Science and Industry". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
  5. MOSI. "BODY WORLDS 4: The Original Exhibition of Real Human Bodies". Archived from the original on 17 January 2008. Retrieved 14 June 2009.
  6. "Stephenson's Rocket returns". Science and Industry Museum. Retrieved 8 April 2019.
  7. ITV report (27 October 2014). "£1bn vision for former ITV site revealed". ITV News Granada Reports. Manchester. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  8. Manchester City Council (July 2016). Executive meeting: 16. Updated Draft St Johns Strategic regeneration framework and Factory Manchester (Report). Manchester City Council. p. 11. Retrieved 23 July 2016. Pdf.
  9. "Science and Industry Museum Special Exhibition Gallery update". Science and Industry Museum. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
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