Salford Museum and Art Gallery facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Salford Museum and Art Gallery

Salford Museum and Art Gallery
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Established	1850; 175 years ago (1850)
Location	Peel Park, Salford, Greater Manchester
Public transit access	Salford Crescent

The Salford Museum and Art Gallery is a cool place to visit in Peel Park, Salford, Greater Manchester. It first opened its doors in November 1850. Back then, it was called the Royal Museum and Public Library. This museum and art gallery focuses on the history of Salford. It also shows off art and buildings from the Victorian era, a time when Queen Victoria ruled Britain.

How the Museum Started

The museum began when the Lark Hill estate and its big house were bought. This happened because people gave money to help. In November 1850, the area opened as Peel Park and the Royal Museum and Public Library.

In 1874, a man named Edward Langworthy left a lot of money to the museum. He was a former Mayor of Salford and a big supporter. This money was used to build a new part called the Langworthy Wing. This wing connected other parts of the museum. It was built with bricks and stone and had a glass roof. Today, this part is where visitors enter the museum.

Over the years, more and more people loved visiting the museum. But in 1936, the original building, Lark Hill Mansion, was found to be unsafe. So, it had to be taken down.

Building New Parts

A new part of the museum was built in the same style as the Langworthy Wing. It took two years to finish and opened in 1938. It was quite special because it looked like older Victorian buildings. This was unusual for the 1930s.

The museum grew slowly with different architects adding their ideas. But it still looks like one complete building today. In its first year, over 160,000 people came to see the museum. They explored old statues, paintings, and items from ancient Egypt. The number of visitors kept growing. In just five years, 1.6 million people had visited!

What Does the Museum Look Like?

The Salford Museum and Art Gallery has a beautiful Italianate Renaissance style.

The Salford Museum and Art Gallery is a very important building. It has strong stone pillars and fancy stone designs inside and out. The building's look has changed over 200 years. But it has become a single, beautiful structure.

A cool part of the design is the galleries in the north and south wings. They have special roofs that let light in from the top. These were some of the first of their kind! The architects designed these parts in a Renaissance style. This style was popular for buildings in Manchester at the time.

The museum is right in the middle of the University of Salford. It's surrounded by other important buildings. It's a key part of the area and helped decide where other buildings would be placed.

What Can You See in the Collections?

The museum has many paintings in its art collection. You can see works by artists like Christian Ludwig Bokelmann, Charles Landseer, and Philip Hermogenes Calderon.

The museum used to have over 400 artworks by a famous painter from Salford named L. S. Lowry. These were collected starting in 1930. But in 2000, these paintings moved to a new, special gallery called The Lowry. This new gallery was built in Salford Quays.

• Selected works on display
• 

  Bokelmann: The Gambler

• 

  Landseer: Aesop Composing His Fables

• 

  Perigal: A Fancy Dress Ball, Manchester

• 

  Portrait of Joshua Routledge

• 

  Illidge: portrait of Lord Stanley

• 

  Calderon - The Queen of the Tournament

• 

  Ranken: Head of a Young Woman

• 

  Ranken: Portrait of an amateur boxer

Step Back in Time at Lark Hill Place

Lark Hill Place is a recreated Victorian street inside Salford Museum.

One of the most exciting parts of the museum is Lark Hill Place. It's on the ground floor. This exhibit is a full-size copy of a typical Victorian street! It was made using real shop fronts that were saved in 1957. At that time, many old shops and houses in Salford were being torn down.

The insides of the shops are filled with objects and furniture from the Victorian period. They show exactly how people lived back then. You can even hear sounds that make it feel like a winter evening from that time. Saving Lark Hill Place was a very early effort to keep old buildings and features. This happened before it was popular to protect historic places.

See also

• Listed buildings in Salford, Greater Manchester